Lost In The Flames
by Log1c
Summary: When a house fire took Jaune's family from him, he was sent down a very different path than the one of the Huntsmen. Now armed with a lighter, a stolen blade, some red leather and a dauntless personality, he's gonna take Vale by storm as Corbeau Rouge.
1. Prologue: Red Crow

_**Prologue: The Red Crow**_

* * *

"An unquenchable fire, burning deep down in every fiber of my being."

-Unknown

* * *

Blake Belladonna's thoughts became clouded as she looked at the warm amber sky that always seemed to exist in Forever Fall. She had been having...doubts, about her mission, her profession, her life as a whole. Her mind was a whirlwind of conflicted emotions as she stood on the proverbial fence about the most important decision of her life, leave the White Fang or stay.

The White Fang was once a noble and proud organization, steadfastly defending Faunus rights and seeking even more than they were allowed...but that eventually changed. Now instead of that beacon of hope they once were, they were terrorists, murderers and thieves; completely unworthy of their previous banner. The part that hurt the most was that it was actually working, faunus were gaining respect, though it was totally out of fear.

Blake legitimately couldn't sleep at night, she had seen some of her best friends maliciously murder innocent people without a second thought or even a shred of remorse. It was haunting. She had watched Adam, her best friend, mentor and first crush, murder innocents upon innocents...just to make a point.

Blake decided that this mission was the tipping point, there would be crew members on this train that they planned to rob, human crew members. If Adam let them go or even spared them she would stay...but if not…

Blake's eyes simply focused on the sky as she simply sighed. If Adam attempted to harm the crew members of the train, she would leave; never to be seen again. Dried leaves crunched as footfalls sounded behind her and Adam's voice was heard, "Blake. It's time."

Blake's mind rushed to the present and her thought returned to her current self as her golden eyes glanced over her shoulder at her bull Faunus partner, "Okay."

Blake and her partner began walking through the Forever Fall forest. It was a fairly simple mission, infiltrate the Schnee Dust Company's Dust transport train which was also transporting a number of passengers near the front of the train itself, destroy or avoid the robotic guards, plant only enough explosives to destroy the cars transporting Dust, then leave. This mission would deal a heavy blow to the SDC and hopefully would end without causalities.

Reddish leaves were crushed as the pair's footsteps increased in pace, moving from a walk to a jog then to a full on sprint, not wanting to miss their prime opportunity to gains access to the train. While the young cat Faunus appeared as stoic as usual, internally her mind was in chaos but whether it was just how strange this mission felt or her appending life changing decision was anyone's guess.

Eventually their running ceased and the pair looked down from a cliff bathed in red leaves to see the raised train where the SDC's transport train would pass through on it's way to Vale and their refinery. They waited just long enough for the passenger occupied section of the train passed before launching themselves off the edge and sliding down the steep cliff side. Wind whipped through their hair before the partners launched themselves off the cliff side, landing on the roof of the train and each jamming their weapons through the metal of the roof; not wanting the speed of the train to be the reason they were launched off.

Blake watched as Adam sliced off the lock to a ceiling hatch and turned to her before lifting the hatch. Blake nodded, signaling that she was ready to begin and Adam nodded back before flinging open the hatch and jumping down into the train car, Blake following not even a second after. The two White Fang agents landed on the metal floor of the train car with a soft thud but Blake's eyes widened as she noticed that something was wrong. _Very_ wrong.

Blake stood and gazed around the train car to see absolute calamity, SDC Knights were scattered around the train car. All of which were beaten and sparking or simply on fire and ruined, their dark metal being cooked by the flames and becoming even darker. It was obvious that the attacker was long gone but Blake's eyes were instantly drawn to the tag on the door of the train car, it appeared to be a crow perched on something. Blake saw that the crimson colored paint was running, it hadn't been too long since the attacker had been through.

"Adam...I don't like this." Blake admitted to her partner as the bull faunus examined a specific Knight, the Knight had had it's own blade turned on it and was pinned to the wall of the train car. Adam watched as the robot attempted to pull it's own arm out of itself before simply cutting the Knight's head off.

"Stay focused. If we're lucky, whoever did this is much farther ahead than us and we can take them out with the train," Adam said before continuing through the train car, stopping to look at the tag on the car's door, "I've seen this before…"

"I thought it looked familiar too." Blake said as she and her partner exited the train car, now in the open air train car to see a familiar scene to the last car. SDC Knights beaten, battered and sparking as well as engulfed in flames. One particular Knight keep repeating the same message over and over again, "Identify yourself...identify yourself...identify yourself."

Blake withdrew Gambol Shroud quickly finished the robot off with a single shot. As Adam and Blake approached the next door, Blake looked down to see another red crow tag. Blake's mind stumbled, she had seen that tag somewhere before, she'd bet her life on it. Adam held an arm out, bringing Blake to a halt as he set a hand against the handle of Wilt and set his other hand against the door handle to the next train car. Blake realized he was preparing in case of a surprise attack and held Gambol Shroud at the ready and nodded at Adam.

Adam burst through the door, ready to do battle, to find that the train car was empty and dark illuminated by a single red light. Adam scanned the dark room once more before carefully stepping inside, moving to let Blake through before shutting the door behind them. Adam smiled maliciously as he quickly stepped forward and began planting the satchel charges, "Go to the next car. I'll plant the charges."

Blake's eye widened, he didn't care about the crew, he was going to murder them all without a second thought. Blake gulped, she had to ask, she had to know.

"What-"

Blake's sentence was interrupted as the train car shook from a nearby explosion, Adam shot up and immediately drew Wilt from Blush and shot forward, bursting through the door of the car and out into another open air car. Blake immediately followed and suppressed a gasp, a massive Spider Droid was in ruins. Many parts of it's armor was smashed in and fire seemed to dance around the droid's body, further destroying it.

Adam stepped onto the open air car and examined the droid, "Who the hell did this?"

"Moi."

Blake and Adam spun towards the car they had just exited from, weapons raised, to see...absolutely nothing. No one behind them and no one on top of the train car they just left.

"Ahem."

Blake and Adam spun around once again, weapons still raised to see a figure sitting amongst the wreckage of the Spider Droid while the flames of the droid simply danced and bended around him. He wore a long hooded red leather coat with fur and feathers around the edge of the hood and around the edge of the bottom of the coat, a black shirt that appeared to have body armor sewn into it, black pants that had angular, rectangular metal studs at the knees that were painted red, black boots, and a thin black and red pair of knuckle gloves. The next thing that drew in Blake's attention was his mask, a simple black Grimm mask with red markings. Like Adam's. The hood on his coat was pulled up but Blake could see his pale red bangs as well as a cocky smirk plastered on his face.

"Who are you?" Adam demanded as he held Wilt out, ready to destroy the interloper.

"Does the White Fang not watch the news? Read the paper," The figure asked as he stood up and hopped backwards off the droid. Blake prepared for a surprise attack but was surprised when the train suddenly turned and the droid's razed body tumbled off the train car, fully revealing the figure again, "Cause you see, kinda a big deal."

Blake knew that symbol was familiar, Corbeau Rouge. Corbeau Rouge had only just made himself known in Vale, quickly becoming known as one of Remnant's greatest mercenaries to date. He wasn't discriminate when it came to the manner of crime either, everything from stealing priceless artwork and gems to assassinations was his stomping ground. So Blake couldn't help wonder why he was on a train transporting Dust and...passengers. He had a target in his sights and that target was on this train.

"You're that mercenary...Corbeau Rouge." Blake muttered, not lowering Gambol Shroud as a look passed over Adam's face as he also realized who they in the presence of.

"A fan? A beautiful one at that. I must say i'm touched." Corbeau said, his smirk never faltering.

"Not hardl-" Blake began before she was cut off by Adam, who pushed her back slightly and, to Blake's utter astonishment, sheathed Wilt.

"Join us in our cause," Adam said as stepped towards the red clad merc, "You clearly show no love towards humans, join us and together we can change the world. Start a revolution."

"Why would I do that exactly?" Corbeau asked, his left hand descending into his pants pocket.

"We're both Faunus! We both want chan...ge." Adam said, trailing off as he realized something. Corbeau Rouge was laughing, howling even. The man leaned forward slightly and braced his elbows on his knees, still shaking from his laughter.

Blake and Adam's anger rose even more when Corbeau began clapping with every single pointed laugh. The man finally stopped and laughing and slid his left hand back into his pocket, "W-w-wait so what you're telling me is, the public thinks i'm a faunus?"

"You're not?" Adam asked, his hand wrapping around the handle of Wilt.

"Fraid not," Corbeau said as he withdrew his hand from his pocket and with it, a gunmetal gray flip lighter. Blake watched as Corbeau flicked open the lighter and a orange and blue flame flickered from the lighter, "I'm just here to do a job."

"And what's that?" Adam asked, clearly preparing for battle with the red clad mercenary.

"Not so sorry to say Adam," Corbeau said, smirking as he raised the lighter to eye level, "But you're the job."

Adam showed a hint of a reaction before a massive fire bolt shot from the lighter's flame, forcing the Faunus to dodge by separating. Adam charged Corbeau, whose gloves now seemed to be engulf in flames. Adam unleashed a flurry of strikes and to the bull Faunus' dismay, Corbeau dodged each one with one ease than the last. Adam swiped down, his blade making contact with the floor of the train car before Corbeau ran on the blade and delivered a vicious kick to Adam's skull before landing in front of Blake, his smirk still unwavering.

"Well hello there, I don't believe we've been formally introduced." Corbeau said, smirk still firmly planted on his face even as Blake slashed at him, which he dodged almost effortlessly.

"How bout dinner? Or if you're in the mood we could skip to dessert." Corbeau offered as he juked away from another set of slashed and launched a fire bolt from his still flame covered hand that Blake dodged with the assistance of her semblance.

"Or ya know, fuck each other senseless." Corbeau said as Blake rushed him. Blake loose another flurry of slashes that the mercenary either dodged or blocked with his gloves before Blake realized something, he was inside her guard. She slashed at the man in a panic but swung through midair due to Corbeau dropping to his knee and delivering a vicious blow to her own knee. As Blake began dropping to her own knee, she felt Corbeau's elbow smash into her jaw, sending her onto her back.

"I'll have to take a rain check my exotic beauty, I kinda have a job to do." Corbeau said as Blake began struggling to her feet, she was surprising disoriented and realised he must of had studs similar to the ones on his pants on the elbows of his shirt underneath his coat.

Adam rose and began firing at Corbeau but almost instantly give up as flames rose from the mercenary's hands and defended him by simply melted the bullets as Corbeau slowly walked forward, hands never even rising from his side.

Adam rushed forward with Wilt at terrifying speed and the two began to clash. After multiple traded blows, the two separated, seemingly ending their clash at a stalemate. Seemingly. Adam was breathing heavily and had multiple singes on his clothing and what looked to be a second degree burn on his left hand while the only change in Corbeau was that his smirk was missing.

Blake, now having gained her bearings, launched herself at Corbeau while Adam shouted at her, "Buy me time!"

"But-!"

" **BUY ME TIME BLAKE!** "

"So you're name is Blake? Such a beautiful name for a beautiful woman." Corbeau said suavely as Blake internal struggled with the fact that this mercenary who was trying to kill her partner was also flirting with her.

Blake swiped and slashed at Corbeau who simply dodged and blocked her attacks as if she was nothing before he fired a fire bolt at her, sending her flying back from the first hit. Blake climbed to her feet before advancing forward again only to hear Adam yell, "Ready!"

"Oh my I wonder what that could mean." Corbeau mused sarcastically as he fired another fire bolt at Blake, which she dodged with her semblance this time. The bolt flew through her shadow and right towards Adam, just like they planned. Adam quickly withdrew Wilt which absorbed the fire bolt and was quickly resheathed as Adam's crimson hair glowed slightly while Blake retreated further back, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. Adam drew Wilt and swung the blade downwards, a slash made of fire charging towards Corbeau at blinding speed.

But Blake and Adam watched as the slash suddenly stopped and they remember just exactly what Corbeau Rouge was recorded to be able to do. Controlling _all_ fire was on that list. The slash turned into two red and orange balls of flames that found a place in each of Corbeau's hands and as he began to pivot on his heel, Blake saw Adam quickly move in front of Blake. Blake didn't have time to react as Corbeau finish his spin and the two balls of flame rocketed towards Adam.

Blake felt the explosion, Adam took most of it but she still felt it. The impact hurt the most closely followed by the heat, oh god the heat hurt it it own different way though. It was almost like...the fire was alive and constantly attacking her. She felt the marrow of her bones nearly melt and then Blake realized something, if she was experiencing this agonizing pain...what was Adam feeling? Blake felt her body being blown backwards and slamming against the train car they had previously exited and groaned as Adam's body fell to the side while she fell directly onto her face.

Blake saw Corbeau's boots out of the corner of her eye and she had to muster up every ounce of strength in her being just to turn her head slightly and see Corbeau even better, his smirk was gone. She saw Corbeau reach down and pull Wilt and Blush from Adam's steaming hands, the man drew Wilt and slashed through the air once or twice, "Excellent craftsmanship."

Corbeau returned Wilt to Blush and Blake was forced to watch as he attached the weapon to his own belt. Blake watched as Corbeau's boots clicked against the train car as he began walking away, away from Blake. Blake knew she should have been silent but her pride and anger at the mercenary got the better of her.

"Give it back…" Blake attempted to scream in a raspy voice but broke out in a series of pitiful coughs before Corbeau spun on his heel and walked towards the ruined faunus.

While Corbeau approached, Blake's eyes widened as she looked at Adam. She couldn't tell skin from blood and what little she could tell was skin was burnt and cracked. His clothes were absolutely scorched off or fused with his very skin and his Grimm mask was tossed to the side, bloodstained and cracked. Her mentor, her friend, her partner was now a steaming pile of melted flesh and bone because of this heartless human mercenary.

"I should kill you. That would be the most sensible thing to do at least," Corbeau admitted in a soft, low voice, "But I want to see something, I want to see just to what lengths you'll go to to see me die. Granted it will never happen but i'll let you dream Kitty Cat."

Corbeau Rouge then disappeared from her sight with the last intact thing that reminded her of her partner. She was no longer confused about whether to stay or leave the White Fang, because she swore on Adam's grave that if she survived she would stay and hunt Corbeau Rouge until the day she died.

* * *

 _AN: And that's a wrap guys. Follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story and leave a review about the chapter. Stay cool everyone and live out loud._


	2. 001: Path Of Embers

**001: Path of Embers**

* * *

" _I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me."_

 _-Joshua Graham_

* * *

 **Downtown Vale**

The broken moon shined down on Vale's streets, citizens slept soundly as a well dressed pair of individuals stood on the rooftop of an apartment building Downtown. One of the individuals, who was wearing a bowler hat and white jacket as well as carrying a cane, paced back and forth nervously, "Where is that idiot?"

[Probably working, like he should be.] A young female voice said from seemingly nowhere but also everywhere.

The other individual, a much shorter one with an umbrella and a much lovelier body, simply shrugged as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small vial of a whitish, clear powder before popping off the top and swallowing the whole thing. For as long as the shorter girl could remember, she was mute. However, it became evident that through the use White Dust, she could create the illusion of speech to anyone nearby. She didn't use it often but it definitely made communicating easier, especially when she used the Dust to only communicate with certain people, letting her effectively communicate with a single person in a room full of people.

"He should have been here half an hour ago," The taller figure said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigar and his lighter before sticking the cigar in his mouth and attempting to light it, "Stupid fucking thing."

[Maybe you should borrow Corbeau's.] The shorter one crossed her arms and smirked at the bowler hat wearing figure.

"Oh shut up, Neo," The taller figure spat, still trying to light his cigar, "I've been standing out in the freezing cold for an hour and this stupid fucking thing won't work."

Neo rolled her eyes as the sound a lighter clicking open rang through the rooftop, Neo watched a small line of flames began circling the two figures before the flame darted at the taller figure and lit his cigarette before dissipating and boots clicked across the rooftop, "Jesus Roman, with all the shit you've stolen I think you could spare the scratch for a decent lighter."

Neo smirked as Corbeau stepped out of the shadow cast by nearby skyscraper. It has always interested Neo how Corbeau could seemingly disappear into the shadows, even though he wore a flamboyant color like red. Corbeau interested her in general, he was a gentleman among criminals even though, in her eyes, he was one of the most skilled criminals in Remnant's history. She and Roman both held a certain respect for the pyrokenetic after a certain instance when they attempted to kill Corbeau after he had performed a particularly high profile assassination for them. He had fended them both off with the same icy fearlessness he took on everything with while at the same time nearly killing them with flames hotter than hell.

"Neo." Corbeau said as he took her hand gently before lightly pressing his lips against her gloved hand.

Neo quickly withdrew her hand and pulled Corbeau backwards via his chest, [You're not allowed to touch this.]

"Come on, Neo. You're sexy, i'm passably attractive. Let's make this happen." Corbeau said sarcastically as he walked backwards.

"You're a teenager aren't you," Roman asked as he took a drag of his cigar, "Only hormones could make someone act like that."

Corbeau simply smirked and laughed, "That's a crackpot theory if i've ever heard one."

Roman rolled his eyes as he flicked the ash off the end of his cigar and took a step closer to Corbeau, "Your escapade made the evening news. My employer is very pleased."

Neo glanced at Roman before focusing on him alone, ['Employer?' You're her bitch.]

Roman glared at the small girl before reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small, full manila envelope and holding it out to the red clad mercenary, "She's very satisfied with your job. In fact, she wants to meet you soon."

"She can go through you like always." Corbeau said coolly as he held his arms akimbo after taking the envelope full of lien and stuffing it into his own coat.

"Please, Corbeau," Roman begged, a look of nervousness and anxiety passing over his face. Roman knew better than anyone, he couldn't control or force Corbeau to meet the woman who struck fear into his heart so he was forced to do something he never wanted to. Beg. Roman nonchalantly tossed his cane to Neo, who caught it in midair, and stepped towards Corbeau before setting his hand on the mercenary's shoulder, "Listen my red clad friend, this woman is very...convincing and if you want to continue business with her, through me, then all of us will need to reach a...mutual understanding."

"..."

"..."

[...]

"Goddamn you're whipped." Corbeau exclaimed as he pushed Roman's arm away from his coat.

Roman rolled his eyes, "So we have a deal then?"

"Two nights from now, construction site on Daedalus street and I swear to god Roman, if I see anybody but you, Neo and this supposed woman i'm gonna light that place up watch you suffocate in smoke."

"So that's a yes?" Roman asked uncertainly, genuinely in fear of Corbeau saying no and disappeared into the night. Never to be seen again.

"Just organize the meet, but remember. Smoke." Corbeau said as he began walking away before he stepped into the shadows and almost seemed to disappear.

[That could have gone worse.] Neo held out Roman's cane to him and the orange haired man took it before tossing his cigar over his shoulder and groaning.

"Now I just have to get through tomorrow's meet with the brothers and my life expectancy will increase oh so much more." Roman groaned as Neo's interested peaked a bit. If they were going to meet the brothers, that means _he_ would be there. She had to be at that meet, her fav- _second_ favorite toy would be there.

[I'm coming with you to that meeting, unless you actually want the South Vale safehouse burnt down.]

"Miss your boyfriend?" Roman asked sarcastically before the tip of Neo's umbrella was jabbed into his ribs, causing Roman to let out a quiet but high pitched scream.

[He's my _toy_ , get it right.] Neo crossed her arms, her umbrella hanging off her wrist.

"Boyfriend, toy, boy toy. It's all the same thing, just don't kill him or his brother will murder you." Roman muttered dryly.

[So wait, you're introducing Cinder to that dark haired devil?]

"That's the plan my pint sized friend." Roman said as he stuck another cigar in his mouth and began trying to light it.

[They're about as likely to kill each other as they are to help each other.] Neo said as she began stretching out of boredom while Roman simply attempted to light his cigar. Neo was a _very_ flexible and lithe woman so the fact that Roman had never even so much as looked at her body lead her to believe he was either gay, asexual, a eunuch or a monk in disguise. She would be first to admit the last one wasn't very likely.

"I know. It'll be like introducing matches to a gasoline. Hopefully i'll be able to avoid the explosion." Roman mumbled around his cigar after finally managing to light it.

[It took forever for us to get a meeting with him and we still barely know nothing about him. Cinder will hate that, makes it harder trick him.]

"Oh she'll be tearing her hair out but his prices, quality, and business sense will make her want to work with him. His paranoia and attitude are signs of experience, even though he's younger than me." Roman admitted while grinning.

[How old is he anyway?]

"Twenty or thirtyish." Roman admitted dryly, not even knowing how old he truly was.

[So when are we heading over?]

"Late in the afternoon tomorrow, we'll meet up with Cinder and her two pets then go to the warehouse all together. Won't matter to you much though, You'll be in the back playing with your...toy." Roman said as he took and drag and flicked the ash off the cigar.

[Damn straight. As my toy it's his job me.]

"I don't think he'd agree with you Neo." Roman said as he rolled his eyes.

Neo's lips curled upward into a mischievous grin that would have men and women from all over Remnant shaking in their boots. [Oh I know, that's what makes him the most fun.]

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

A dark haired man who appeared to be in his late twenties to early thirties entered a large warehouse with a bang as the door shut behind him and automatically bolted shut, much of the warehouse was filled with metal shipping containers and crates, all unmarked and unlabeled. The man groaned as he unbuttoned his the jacket of his navy blue suit and loosened his tie of similar color, "I got the paper!"

A voice spoken back from the back left corner of the warehouse, blocked by many towers of crates and containers, "And?"

"You made the front page!" The man shouted as he began navigating the labyrinth the two men had created.

"Did they finally use my name?" The voice asked in annoyance.

"Yes they did." The man said as he rounded a particularly high wall of containers and saw a living room-esque open roofed room created from containers containing a leather couch, two armchairs, a long coffee table, a retro style fridge and a rather large flat-screen TV. The man's eyes locked onto the leather couch where a blonde teen lay, most people would describe him as "dorky", his blonde hair was a tangled and yet also well managed mess and sapphire eyes gleamed in a mysterious way. Light drifted in through the triple paned Dust reinforced windows and seemed to illuminate his blonde hair to a near gold color. The part that stood out to the man the most was the teen's arms and forearms that were covered in second degree burns. The man tore his eyes away from the teen's scars before his own cobalt eyes gleamed as he threw himself across the "room" and landed on the teen's stomach, "You did some nice work, Jaune."

"What the hell, Noir?!" The teen, now known as Jaune, protested as he attempted to push his older brother off of him.

Noir hit Jaune in the head with the rolled up newspaper before spreading it wide enough for the both of them to see a grainy picture of Jaune in his red and black gear and to read the headline:

 **CORBEAU ROUGE ATTACKS SDC TRANSPORT TRAIN; NOTHING IS STOLEN. WHY?**

The crime scene photos were rather gruesome, the interior of the SDC transport train was in absolute ruins. Knights lay strewn about and were absolutely destroyed or on fire. There was a shot of his symbol that Jaune had spray painted onto the walls and floors of the train cars.

"Nice job little brother, thanks to our combined work we have more money than ever." Noir said as Jaune finally managed to push him off of himself, while Noir gestured to the entire warehouse.

Jaune knew exactly what each of these containers hid, even without markings Jaune knew every square inch of the warehouse, some containers contained raw Dust, some contained small arms, some contained specialty weapons. There was a little bit of everything in this warehouse and because of that Noir was known as one of the greatest black market traders to those who actually knew him.

Jaune looked away from his brother for a moment to sent off a text and his brother laid his arm across the back of the couch and leaned towards the blonde, "Who ya texting little bro?"

"That's none of your business." Jaune remarked as he shoved his scroll into his pocket.

"Milta," Noir asked and Jaune's eyebrow twitched, "It is! I'm so proud of my little bro, getting his first fuck buddy!"

"We're friends...with benefits." Jaune said smoothly as he stood up and began stripping off his tank top and basketball shorts as he walked back into the labyrinth and soon stood in front of a two shipping container high tower in the back right corner.

After undoing all the latches the doors to the bottom container swung open and his base of operations was revealed. Jaune stepped into the wood paneled container and walked past his computer setup that he used to coordinate more complicated jobs and a metal wardrobe that contained his Corbeau Rouge gear before walking up a set of stairs and walked up into the container above where his bed lay, his dresser, his end table, and an old box TV that had an old gaming console set up to it. Jaune reached up and pulled on the chain to the light, illuminating the container. Jaune tossed his pajamas in the hamper before digging a pair of dark blue jeans, a white V-neck, and a orange hoodie with two black stripes around the upper arms.

Jaune groaned as he sat on his bed and leaned forward, his elbows against his knees while he stared at his hands. Just looking at the burns reminded him of the fire, him of his family, his parents...his sisters. Jaune always saw it as the world bitch slapping the shit out of him when his family had died in a fire of all things and now he uses fire as a weapon. Jaune knew his family would be ashamed of him, he wasn't a hero like his family had wanted, he was just a bad guy who got paid to kill worse guys.

Shaking his head and memories of his past out of his mind, Jaune began dressing and finally re-wrapped his hands and forearms with the fire proof linen wraps that Noir had paid a small fortune for. Jaune had became immune to his flames as he got better with his semblance and now he couldn't be hurt by fire or heat of any kind, which made taking relaxing hot showers a bit boring. The wraps were to hide his scars more than anything. Jaune examined himself in his mirror before giving himself a fake confident smile then frowning at his own image in the mirror.

Jaune reached into his pocket and pulled out his- his father's gunmetal gray lighter before flicking it open and igniting the orange and blue flame. Anyone who knew Jaune for more than ten minutes knew that his lighter was like a tick of his, anytime he felt nervous or scared or just wrong in general, he would reach for the lighter and begin playing with it. Sure, plenty of people had seen the lighter but he had only truly shown it to Noir, he was his brother so of course he'd know about the small gray lighter that had taken their family from them. With a flick of the wrist the lighter was shut and Jaune cracked his neck before her heard Noir shout for him, "Yo Jaune! Get out here boyo!"

Jaune jogged out of his shipping containers and back into the 'living room' to find Noir still on the couch, flipping through channels, "What do you want jackass?"

"Jackass? Boi when I was your age-"

"You were raising me. I know." Jaune said with a laugh as he joined his brother on the couch, stretching his legs out and setting them on the coffee table.

"That's right, don't you forget it kid." Noir said as he flicked his little brothers forehead. Noir had inherited his little brother around their fifth and seventeenth birthdays, after the house fire had taken away the rest of the Arc family, Noir had dropped out of Beacon and began pursuing a more illegal line of work to take care of his little brother and thanks to some unsanctioned tutoring from a dusty old mentor, Noir had become a force of nature and began training Jaune when the blonde had turned ten. Parkour, freerunning, lockpicking, computer hacking, gymnastics, armed and unarmed close quarters combat, marksmanship, and a slew of other skill had been drilled into his head by Noir and a various array of business associates of Noir's who were promptly killed once Jaune and Noir learned everything they could. No one but Noir could know he was Corbeau Rouge.

"So, you heading to The Club?" Noir asked as he put his feet up.

"Yeah, Milita wants to...talk." Jaune said before Noir broke out in a fit of laughter causing him to have to lean against his blonde brother to stay upright.

"You're too fuckin funny J." Noir said as Jaune pushed the dark haired Arc brother off of him before standing up and walking to teal container across the aisle that faced the "living room", "Just be sure to be back by four, Roman and Neo are bringing over some woman, apparently she's the one who's got Roman on a choke chain."

"Oh come the fuck on man! Neo?" Jaune shouted before growling in frustration as he unlocked the container and stepped inside, only to walk out thirty seconds later with an exotic looking red and black motorcycle with him which he parked and kicked down the kickstand before turning around and locking the container, "She's so fucking degrading, she thinks i'm her slave or- or toy or something."

Noir stood up and walked over the Jaune before setting both hands on his little brother's shoulders, "As your brother i'm begging you to play nice with that tiny devil girl."

"You're lucky I love you." Jaune muttered as Noir grabbed Jaune by the back of his neck and pulled him into a hug.

"I know, I know. Go on get outta here," Noir said as Jaune put on a black helmet and straddled the bike before starting it, letting the engine roar before hitting a button on the left handlebar and watched as the red on the bike turned to a matte black and the black turned into a shiny chrome before Jaune slowly rode towards the bay doors, "Wear a condom!"

Jaune turned to Noir and threw back his head, probably laughing but it was smothered out by the sound of the engine, before the not another button on the handlebar and the triple Dust reinforced bay door slowly opened for Jaune to drive under before closing and the sound of deadbolts locking the door down rang through the warehouse. Noir looked around for a moment before sighing, "Gotta get this place ready for company."

* * *

 **The Club**

"Glad you came." Milita moaned as she climbed off of Jaune's lap and collapsed next to the blonde boy, latching onto his arm and snuggling into him. Thanks to Junior's want to always be ready to work, Junior and the twins each had a small apartment under The Club and thankfully for Milita and Jaune; It was completely sound proof.

"I can't tell if that's supposed to be a pun or not," Jaune moaned as he rolled over and wrapped his arms around Milita and began to spoon the red and black haired girl. Milita simply backed up into Jaune and proceeded to grind her butt against Jaune's crotch, the blonde groaned as he kissed the back of her neck, "Sorry Milita, I don't have another one in me."

"Aw. You're done already," Milita a slight pout, a pout that Jaune wanted to make go away so without any prompting, Jaune began descend under the covers of Milita's full sized bed, "Jaune? What are you-"

Milita began to let out little moans and squeals as Jaune somehow managed to force her over the edge again, she didn't know exactly what he was doing but she definitely wanted more. As Jaune's head popped up from under the covers, Milita noticed he was was smirking and simply smiled before kissing the blonde. Milita realized that he tasted different and came to the conclusion that it had been his tongue that had just finished her off for the day.

As Milita pulled away, she noticed that Jaune had quickly scampered to the other side of the bed and was already getting dressed. Milita crept up behind the blonde and hugged him, pressing her breasts against his back, "Gotta go already?"

"Yeah, I gotta go help my brother with some stuff," Jaune said as he felt Milita's lips press against his neck, "How are things with your boyfriend?"

"Okay I guess. He's been pissed off all week though and he's just been acting like a huge ass." Milita said as she set her head against Jaune's shoulder.

"Should I talk to him?" Jaune asked before Milita shook her head and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you for the offer but I can handle it," Milita said before she took Jaune's shirt from his hands and began to put it on him herself, "Sure you couldn't stay for a bit? New episodes of Kingdom were just uploaded to Webflix."

Jaune stood up and turned before kissing Milita. The naked girl slowly stood, not breaking away from the kiss, and pressed herself against Jaune before he pulled away and smiled, "Sorry Milita, you know there's nothing i'd rather do than hang out with my friend but I gotta go."

"Okay. Good luck." Milita called out as her blonde friend exited the apartment. Milita let out a shaky breath as she began dressing herself, when they had first agreed to do... _this_...it had been simply for pleasure. Milita had always wondered what her friend was hiding behind those jeans and hoodie and she was impressed. She didn't even mind the wraps on his hands, which he still wouldn't tell her about but it was his business and she didn't want to pry and end up losing her only friend outside of The Club. So she was also forced to swallow her feelings for the blonde and proceeded to finish getting dressed and head back up to the club for work.

* * *

As Jaune walked out of the club, he saw a blonde girl pull up on a black and yellow motorcycle. One very different than his own but still a nice one. As the blonde got off the bike, Jaune noticed that she was, as Noir put it, a bombshell blonde. Big chest, tiny waist and a nice ass. Jaune couldn't help but check the girl out as she walked past him and smirked when the girl turned and flirtatiously winked at Jaune before entering the club. Jaune walked over to his own bike before putting on his helmet be beginning his short drive towards the warehouse.

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

"So how long till they get here?" Jaune asked as he lounged on the couch as Noir paced back and forth in his black and white pinstriped tailored three piece suit.

"Bout thirty minutes," Noir said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, placed the pack against his mouth and worked a cigarette out of the pack with his mouth before turning to Jaune, "Light?"

"Gimme one." Jaune said before Noir tossed a cigarette to his brother, this would usually be seen as irresponsible of the older brother but thankfully the cigarettes were actually a cocktail of drugs and Dust that helped reverse the effects of smoking and even improved the immune system but unfortunately they only offered about half the stress relief. Jaune had convinced Noir to start smoking the specialty cigarettes after Noir had began coughing up reached into his pocket and pulled out his lighter and flicked it open and a lick of flame flicked into two whips of flames and lit the two cigarettes.

Noir took a drag and breathed out the blue and red smoke, "We got this little brother."

"I know." Jaune said after he quickly finished his cigarette. He was worried about this meet, whoever this woman is, she had Roman on a leash and had him scared. Roman was usually the picture of confidence and this hellcat was controlling him, it was strange.

"Hey," Noir said softly as he set his cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table and kneeled in front of his brother, "We're Lyons. We got this."

Jaune smiled at the mention of his and Noir's middle name. The middle name of every male Arc for the past hundred years in fact. Jaune clapped his brother on the shoulder and stood up, "I'll get into position. Should I be ready for Landing?"

"I don't think that's necessary, but it wouldn't hurt," Noir said as he finished his cigarette and dumped the ashes from the ashtray into the trash, "Just be my eyes unless I say...uhh...pineapple."

"Pineapple?"

"How many times does 'pineapple' come up in any normal conversation?" Noir asked as he unbuttoned his jacket and stood with his hands in his pockets.

"Good point," Jaune admitted with a smirk as he stood with his brother, "Got the wine?"

"In the freezer. Bitches love chilled wine." Noir mused sarcastically as he walked to the fridge and opened the freezer to pull out an expensive looking bottle of wine and four glasses that had frost built up along the sides of the glass.

"You said the same thing about cannons." Jaune muttered dryly, reminiscing about Noir's previous girlfriend who had not been happy that her boyfriend got her an anti-Goliath rifle instead of perfume or something like a normal boyfriend for her birthday.

"I was misinformed. Now get to my apartment." Noir said as he began pushing Jaune towards his studio apartment that had been added onto the back if the warehouse that was just as armored as the rest of the warehouse. They had been waiting for the right time to expand and get Jaune his own studio apartment but finding a right time was more difficult than they could have ever imagined.

Jaune strode into Noir's studio apartment and threw himself onto the beat up couch, picking up a tablet that had been sitting on Noir's coffee table. Jaune typed in the password and soon he could see every square inch of the warehouse and outside the warehouse from multiple angles, thanks to the array of security cameras they had installed. Jaune sat for a few moments, watching the outside of the warehouse and watching Noir sit and sip wine while he waited.

Jaune was in a state of worry for his brother, he knew just what he was capable of and what he could take on but it still didn't stop Jaune from worrying about his older brother. Jaune set the tablet to the side and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees and leaning his head against his fists before screwing his eyes shut. Jaune took deep, steady breaths. He and Noir were both terrified with losing each other, neither of them wanted to lose the only family they had left.

A loud buzz sounded throughout the warehouse and Jaune's head snapped up, his eyes wide in anticipation. They were here.

* * *

 _AN: Well bois and grills, here we are. The first actual chapter of Lost In The Flames, I know it's not too action packed but characters need to be established and shiz. By the way, if it wasn't obvious, I'm using Phantom Nevermore: Moonlit Sonata for a little bit if the groundwork of this fic but that's it. Just the groundwork. Last thing, there's now a poll on my profile for the third member of Jaune's harem because i'm honestly not feeling Yang and have no real plans on how she'd meet Jaune...so go vote. There is a wide variety of waifus for Jaune so you can pick two and i'll leave the poll up for...hmmm...two chapters I think. Stay cool everyone and live out loud._


	3. 002: Path Of Embers (Part Deux)

**002: Path Of Ember (Part Deux)**

* * *

"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire."

-Unknown

* * *

Corbeau Rouge and Jaune were two different people in a way while still being one in the same. The major difference was that Corbeau Rouge didn't feel fear, it was like as soon as Jaune slipped on the coat and mask his ability to feel fear disappeared. But Jaune didn't have the coat or mask on as he watched Noir maneuver through the maze of shipping containers and crates towards the door. He felt fear for his brother. Jaune couldn't help it, his only family left was about to dance with a woman Roman described as the devil.

Jaune knew Noir wasn't a pushover in a fight and he knew that Noir was even more deadly in this warehouse...anywhere with natural materials really. Noir was also deadly with his weapon, something Jaune had only seen once or twice. Jaune zoomed in on Noir as he opened the door to see their guests. Jaune counted five in total. A tall dark haired woman in a small red dress, a dark skinned, mint haired girl with red eyes, a silver haired boy who was swathed gray and black and finally, the Arc brothers' favorite pains in the ass, Roman and Neo.

"This is gonna be great," Jaune muttered sarcastically as Noir, being the total gentleman he was, kissed the dark haired woman's hand, "Well at least he can tell she's the boss."

Noir began leading the group of criminals through the maze, gesturing to crates and containers, giving the same old spiel about everything the Arc brothers sold and had in their possession. It was times like these when Jaune hated their lojack security cameras. No damn audio. Noir's spiel was probably filled with underlying threats and possible sexual tension throughout the speech seeing as how the woman who had Roman on a choke chain was a stone cold dime.

Jaune switched to the next camera as the group entered the "living room". The dark haired woman sat on the couch and crossed her long legs, even further revealing legs that seemingly went on forever. The gray haired guy walked to the other side of the "living room" and sat on a metal crate as the mint haired girl stood next to the TV while Noir sat on the other side of the couch as he poured two glasses of wine.

Roman tugged on the collar of his coat as Neo's head darted around before Noir rose his head and spoke to the pink and brown haired girl before she darted towards the back of the warehouse, towards Jaune.

"Noir, you fucking cock," Jaune muttered as the door to Noir's apartment burst open, "I fucking hate everything."

[Oh man slave~]

Jaune prayed for God to end his suffering as Neo's petite body sauntered into the living room of Noir's apartment to find Jaune sitting on the couch with a comic book in his hands and his feet on the table. Neo ran and jumped onto the couch landing on the other side of the couch and snapped her fingers.

"What?" Jaune asked in an irritated tone.

[Entertain me.]

"Suck my d- Ahhhh!" Jaune began before shouting as the tip of Neo's umbrella was driven into his side.

[Language man slave. Now feed me.]

"I hate yo- Son of a bitc- Oh god dammit!" Jaune shouted as Neo's umbrella was stabbed into his ribs and side multiple times.

[Food man slave.]

"Fine. Jesus Christ." Jaune muttered as he stood and walked to the kitchen, he could kill Neo. Hell, he could probably kill her, Roman, Bombshell Bitch, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Snarky McSnarkSnark. Jaune opened the freezer and sighed as he pulled out a gallon of neapolitan ice cream and began scooping ice cream into a small bowl. After the third or forth time of Neo coming over and proceeding to throw every meal he made for her in his face, Jaune simply flipped his shit and began feeding her ice cream. Soon after, he found out was the only she eats which proceeded to confuse the fuck outta him due to her lithe body.

Jaune groaned as he trudged out to the living room and set the bowl of ice cream onto the coffee table in front of Neo and stabbed a spoon into the the ice cream before flopping back onto the couch and flipping open his comic book. Neo stared at the bowl before blinking.

[What the hell are you doing?]

"Giving you ice cream...like you asked." Jaune said before his comic book was sent into the air, having been swatted into the air by Neo's umbrella.

[Feed me.]

Jaune's eye twitched after Neo's demand and spoke in a deadpan tone, "You can't be serious."

[Hop to it man slave.]

"You're the reason I have suicidal tendencies," Jaune muttered as he scooted over to the supple girl and lifted the spoon and filled the spoon with ice cream before holding the spoon in front of the Neo's face and smirking, "Say 'ahh'...oh wait."

Neo glared at Jaune as she jammed her umbrella into Jaune's ribs and took a bite of the ice cream as Jaune groaned, while also thinking about how it was worth it.

[Quiet man slave.]

Jaune sighed angrily before breaking out into a massive grin as Noir shouted, "Jaune! Get out here!"

"Thank Monty Oum." Jaune muttered as he shot up and jogged out of the apartment and into the warehouse, "Get fucked you tiny dominatrix."

Jaune slowed his pace and recollected himself as he walked into the living room and came face to face with the five criminals and Noir...who was also a criminal, "What's up Noir?"

"Our future business associate here believe that you have a big enough part in our business that she should meet you." Noir said as a look passed over his face that said, "Be careful."

"Oh. Well it's a pleasure to meet you." Jaune said as he stepped forward and took Bombshell Bitch's extended hand kissed the back of it while flashing Noir a look that said, "I am."

"My, both of you seem to be gentleman." The woman muttered as Jaune pulled away and leaned against one of the shipping container walls.

"We had good parents," Noir said simply as he crossed his legs and took a sip of wine, "If you would."

Jaune interpreted Noir's cryptic message and smiled charmingly as he pushed off the container and bowed slightly, "Jaune Arc, I mostly do budgeting and paperwork."

"Jaune doesn't really like taking part in the hands on part of business, but he knows this warehouse like the back of his hand." Noir explained as Jaune took out his scroll and began flipping through their stocks as Noir looked back to Bombshell Bitch, "Jaune, this lovely woman is Cinder Fall and her two associates are Emerald and Mercury and well...you know Roman."

"Charmed." Jaune said as Mercury, also know as Snarky McSnarkSnark, gave a three finger wave with a smirk plastered on his face, and Emerald, otherwise known as Mint Chocolate Chip, rolled her eyes at the blonde.

"So Cinder, as you can see we have quite the large stock and i'm interested to know what you currently want." Noir said with a smile charming enough to make a nun lift her skirt.

"I want to acquire a large amount of high quality Blue Dust, preferably something above a five on the SDC Dust Scale." Cinder said before Noir crocked his head towards his brother, with a slight crack of his neck and snapped his fingers.

"Jaune?"

"We got a shipment of Blue-Seven last week," Jaune said as he lightly picked at his wrappings, "We don't have any other potential buyers for it and it's still hot so we can't sell it to a commercial store."

"You weren't lying about his talent." Cinder said as she took a sip of wine while Roman nervously fidgeted with his cane.

"It's nothing special, it's in section six. Top container," Jaune said as his scroll buzzed in his pocket and he removed his scroll and read the message from Junior and stared at the message wide eyed, "I gotta jet, apparently something happened without me."

"Aight kid, you can take my car." Noir said as he reached into his pocket and tossed his keys to Jaune who caught them out of midair and sprinted out of the living room.

"I wonder what happened, Jaune isn't the one to get rattled like that." Roman observed as Neo walked into the living room, carrying a bowl of ice cream with a spoon in her mouth.

[Where is my man slave?]

"He had something better to do than wait hand and foot on your crazy ass." Mercury said before groaning as the bowl of ice cream was thrown directly into his face.

* * *

 **Vale Regional Hospital**

Jaune adjusted his hoodie and swung his rather large bag back and forth lightly as he entered a small hospital room that had three beds that were occupied by Junior and and the Malachite twins, all laid up and wearing varying amounts of bandages and casts. Jaune sauntered into the center of the room as Militia smiled at him shyly, "Any of you get the license plate of the bus that seemingly managed to hit all three of you?"

"Fuck you Kid." Junior groaned as he rubbed his bandaged head.

"Maybe later sweetheart," Jaune said sarcastically as he opened his bag and pulled out a pair of golf balls that were wrapped in saran wrap and tossed them onto Junior's bed next to him, "Heard what happened, thought you might want some new ones."

"Fuck you!" Junior shouted as he picked up the golf balls and winged them at the blonde boy, who ducked before the two balls smashed into the wall.

"Hey! Those cost me money." Jaune protested.

Junior rolled over in bed, with his back to the blonde, causing Jaune to laugh at the older man's childishness. Jaune reached into his bag and pulled out a bouquet of red tulips and presented them to Militia with a small bow, "My lady."

"For me? Jaune you shouldn't have." Militia said with a light blush before reaching out slowly to taking the bouquet, wincing as she did so.

"Gez. You all got fucked up." Jaune said as he instead handed the flowers to Militia and looked around the room to even further examine the bandaged criminals.

"No shit," Melanie muttered before scoffing as Jaune looked at the cast on her leg, "Where's my gift?"

"Uhhhhh," Jaune said before opening his bag again before scowling, crumpling it into a ball and tossing it into the trash can before laughing nervously as he reaching into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, "How bout...a Yogurt Castle gift card?"

"Why the fuck would I want that?"

"They have sweet, low fat desserts." Jaune said as he tossed the card like a frisbee into Melanie's forehead.

Melanie deadpanned at Jaune angrily, "Why my sister fucks you is an absolute mystery."

Militia blushed a deep red as Jaune retorted, "I'll have you know she likes the di-"

"Shut up!" Militia shouted, her blush changing into a deeper shade of red.

Jaune laughed as he shoved his wrapped hands into the pockets of his hoodie, "I just came by to check on you three. I'm gonna head out."

"You're not going to stay longer?" Militia asked as Jaune began walking out of the hospital room.

"Sorry I can't. I have a party tomorrow that I have to prepare for unfortunately." Jaune said with a malicious smirk, a smirk that shocked Militia in a way. She always saw Jaune as a kind person, ever since he had saved her and actually tried to be friends with her.

* * *

 **Two Years Ago…**

Militia Malachite boredly cradled her head in her hand as her eyes scanned The Club's dance floor, the bumping bodies of drunk adults and college kids beginning to mesmerize her. The young fifteen year old was slightly daunted by her first day of work at The Club, drunks tended to be rude and disrespectful or just acted like total jackasses and men tended get handsy with her which usually ended in her or Melanie breaking someone's arm.

Militia boredly strutted across the club to an empty table and began gathering up half empty glasses onto a tray to be carried back to the kitchen to be washed. Militia gasped and felt her tray go crashing to the ground as big meaty arms wrapped around her body and a hand clamped over her mouth, Militia was practically useless without her weapons and was being dragged out of the club in shadows through a service entrance. She tried to cry out to Junior, to her sister, anyone.

The metal door that lead to the side alley banged open and slammed against the wall, Militia gasp and kicked even harder as she saw a car idling with its trunk open. Where they going to take advantage of her? Sell her to the highest bidder? Ransom her back to Junior? Militia's mind was filled with these terrors as she continued to fight back.

A man climbed out of the driver's door of the car and immediately crashed to the ground after to sharp cracks rang through the alley, the man's head tilted down to watch as the two new bullet holes in his stomach began bleeding profusely and he crashed to the ground. The man threw Militia to the ground behind him before rushing to his partner and kneeling next to him by the car door, "Brock? Brock?!"

Heels clicked down the alleyway and Militia rubbed her mouth in disgust as her living captor stood up and drew a pistol from under his jacket, "Come out you mother fucker!"

The man fired blindly into the darkness of the alleyway where the shots that killed his partner originated, "Die mother fucker!"

"God you're a fucking moron."

Militia's head snapped up to the roof of the car to see a boy in a well fitting black suit with with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, revealing arms that were wrapped in wraps of some kind. The boy's blonde hair was pushed back and out of his face and sapphire eyes that gleamed in the low light of the night, a smirk painted his face as he looked down the iron sights of a silenced pistol.

Militia's would be captor turned quickly, just in time to see the boy pull the trigger and end his life. The captor crashed to the ground as the blonde boy continued shooting the man whist cursing profusely, after the captors blood and skin were indiscernible, the boy hopped off the car and walked to Militia before offering the girl a hand, "Random question...but do you know how to hide a body?"

* * *

"Roll it off the dock you said! It'll be like easy you said!" The blonde complained as the two teens attempted to push the body filled car over the edge of the concrete pier.

"I'm sorry! Excuuuuuuse me for not being an expert in hiding dead bodies!" Militia shouted back as her legs slid out from under her body and she went crashing to the ground, landing on her ass.

"Stop shouting and get up." The blonde demanded as he turned around and started leaning against the car and pushing that way, like Militia had.

Militia climbed to her feet and slammed against the back bumper of the car and gasped as the car teetered over the edge and plunged into the black abyss that was the sea. The boy stumbled but quickly caught himself and stood tall, Militia examined the boy and saw that his black suit was accompanied by a gray shirt and an orange tie tucked into a gray vest. Militia blushed as the boy' s head flicked towards her and examined her, "What's your name sweetheart?"

Militia's blush deepened at the nickname and because of the fact that the blonde was actually semi-attractive, "W-why?"

The boy collapsed onto the gravel that filled the pier that mostly acted as an extra place to store the overflow of storage containers for Vale's merchants, the boy sighed as he loosened his tie a few notches, "Well, I kinda just committed cold blooded murder for your ass. Least I could get is a name...or you in my lap for like five minutes...or both."

Militia gaped at the blonde before slowly sitting to his left in the gravel and giving him a small smile, "Militia. Militia Malachite."

The boy reached across his body and held out his hand to MIlitia before smiling, "Jaune. Jaune Arc."

"So tell me Jaune, why do you carry around a silenced pistol?"

"Why do you almost get kidnapped only to be rescued by the dashing Jaune Arc?" Jaune retorted sarcastically.

"Freaking smartass."

* * *

 **Daedelus Street**

"Awe hell yeah, my Mega Charizard X is gonna beat your ass." Jaune said as he started rocking back and forth in his seated position on the edge of the building across the street from the building where he was supposed to meet Roman. The wind whipped through his pale red wig as he played around on his scroll, and his black Grimm mask sat next to him on the roof's edge.

Jaune raised his head and grabbed the set of binoculars out of the small pouch on his belt. Focusing on the top floor, Jaune could see three figures standing in the moonlight...but something was off. Shadows flickered unnaturally across the rooftop, red "I" beams sprouted from the rooftop. Apparently they planned on making the skyscraper bigger.

Jaune set his binoculars down and scoffed, realizing what was happening on the rooftop, "Cheap ass tricks."

Jaune returned the binoculars to their pouch and placed the black Grimm mask onto his face, "Sword, check. Badass coat, check. Lighter, check. High functioning psychopathic, sarcastic, fearless alter ego, check."

Standing on the ledge of the roof, Jaune smiled wickedly, "Show time."

* * *

"I'm losing patience, Roman." Cinder spat angrily as she paced back and forth on the rooftop, she had wanted to meet this mercenary but so far he was only wasting her time and Cinder disliked wasting her valuable time.

"He'll be here, Cinder." Roman said, trying his hardest to keep the genuine worry out of his voice. He hoped and prayed that Corbeau would show up or else...he'd definitely be on the hot seat.

[Corbeau isn't a cheat, he's a ruthless bastard, but not a cheat.] Neo spun her umbrella around her wrist boredly.

"He seems to be taking his time, despite saying that he'd be here nearly half an hour ago." Cinder said spitefully as anger filled her amber eyes.

"This is just how Corbeau is, he's flippant but he's the most skilled mercenary i've even seen." Roman said anxiously with a fearful smile on his face.

"He better be." Cinder growled before an explosion shook the building, causing Cinder to nearly lose balance. A giant plume of fire erupted from the right of the group of three and Cinder's head snapped towards the fireball as one of her associates screamed.

"Contact! Contact," Cinder heard Mercury shout before watching as he soared past them and collided with one of the "I" beams while shouting. As Mercury laid on the ground he let out a strangled moan, "He saw through Emerald's illusion."

"What?!" Cinder shouted as another burst of flames erupted from the right side and Emerald smashed into the "I" beam next to Mercury's and let passed out instantly from the sheer pain of the flames and impact. Cinder watches as the flames spread and circled the five criminals and as a form became visible on the other side of the flickering flames. Cinder saw the look on Roman's face and instantly realized something, as sacred of her Roman was...he was terrified of Corbeau Rouge.

The mercenary's famous coat fluttered in the wind, unlike his flames; which showed no signs of burning out anytime soon. The mercenary's hood was pulled up hiding most of his hair and only showing his pale red bangs and his black Grimm mask, the mercenary's normal body armor-esque shirt that covered his body had been replaced with a more comfortable tank top but the mercenary's pants and boots remained the same. A beautiful blade that Cinder had seen before was slightly hidden under the mercenary's coat, Cinder felt herself chuckle in amusement for a moment when she realized that the boy had taken a trophy from his previous target.

"What the fuck did I say Roman," Corbeau shouted with a rage fueled voice as he walked slowly through the flames. Cinder's eyes widened slightly as the orange flames that flicked arund them grew even larger and grew darker in color, changing to a dark crimson, "I said you, the mini bitch and the one with you on a leash! NOT YOU, THE MINI BITCH, THE ONE WITH YOUR LEASH AND THE TWO STREET PUNKS WHO RIDE THIS BITCH'S DICK!"

[Well this will be interesting.] Neo smirked at her on musing.

* * *

 **AN: Look at me using what little I learned in French for chapter titles. Deux means two for those who didn't catch on. So much to talk about and I have no idea where to start...if you read Spectre (self plug-in as fuck) you know that i'm currently in Southern California visiting some family for vacation and i've been spending a lot of time working and talking to my girlfriend (seeing as how i'm currently chilling in the So Cal sun...imma edit that out). So that's why I haven't been updating as often but i'm still writing for you BAMFs, so yeah. Next, so I have recently revamped my Twitter for my FF account so it will mostly be a keeping you guys up to date, giving you guys sneak peeks on upcoming stories and chapters, and for giving you guys previews into my life and also telling you guys about some of the crazy shit that happens in my life because that shit tends to happen so go follow me DeadAirXIII on Twitter. Now to the poll I currenting have going on on my profile, Coco is winning closely followed by Winter, I retract my previous statement of leaving the poll up for two chapters and now say that i'm gonna leave the poll up for one week after this chapter goes live, (till the fifteenth of July) so go vote cause this shit won't be up forever. I'd appreciate the fuck outta you if you followed and faved and especially if you went and reviewed this chapter, stay cool everyone and live out loud, enjoy my song that kinda reminded me of this Jaune. DeadAir signing out.**

* * *

 **Jaune**

 **Sucker for Pain - Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa & Imagine Dragons w/ Logic & Ty Dolla $ign ft X Ambassadors**


	4. 003: Fire In The Skies

**003: Fire In The Skies**

* * *

"There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke."

-Vincent Van Gogh

* * *

 **Daedalus Street**

"Listen kid! This isn't my fault." Roman pleaded, defending himself as Corbeau Rouge's flames flicked around him and his associates.

"I don't give a damn if it wasn't your fault Roman," Corbeau growled before seemingly being devoured by his own flames, and his disembodied spoke to the five of them, "You didn't honor the deal."

"I didn't know they were here Corbeau. You have to believe me," Roman begged as the flames around them still burned strong and began to spin faster and faster, like a whirlwind.

Roman was shoved face down as a sudden weight collided with him and gasped as a crimson red blade was pressed against his throat. Roman could see out of the corner of his eye and saw Corbeau Rouge half kneeling on his back as his body looked like it was reconstructing itself out of embers and ashes, "I'm getting real tired of your shit Roman."

"Me too." Roman mumbled as he felt the crimson blade press harder against his throat and a drop of blood ran down his neck.

"Why do you always seem to be the one who brings extra guests to our parties. I've never brought one. So why do you consistently bring friends who aren't on the guest list. That's like going to someone's party, breaking into the coat room and shitting all over the coats… Is that what you want Roman? You want to shit on my coat? Because I happen to care more about this coat more than I care about your life, but that's not really saying much."

[Damn you are just ruthless with the verbal attacks tonight.] Neo crossed her arms as she watched Corbeau Rouge pin her partner to the ground, not moving because she knew the moment she so much as breathed out of turn she'd be cooked alive.

"I always am sweetheart." Corbeau remarked angrily as he stood pulling Roman up with him by the back of his coat collar, still holding Wilt to Roman's throat.

"Now i'm gonna let Roman go and we're gonna talk like civilized human beings but if anyone steps within five feet of me without my say, I'm gonna slash their goddamn throat. Clear?" Corbeau said before removing his blade and pushing Roman forward towards to the other criminals.

"Thanks Red." Roman growled as he rubbed his throat, possibly staining his gloves with blood.

"No problem Torchwick."

"Okay. You're clearly angry," Roman said as he held his hand out in front of him, palms towards Corbeau, "I get that."

"You have no fucking clue."

"But everything is okay! No one's hurt." Roman reasoned, trying his best to have a confident smile as Corbeau's reddish-orange flames flicked and shifted around them.

"Are you sure about that?!" Mercury shouted from the ground, still clutching his stomach and groaning in pain.

Roman was silent for half minute before chuckling nervously, "No one important was hurt!"

[You can say that again.] Corbeau chuckled at the Neo as the lithe girl received glares from Cinder's underlings.

"God the things we could do together." Corbeau growled as he smirked at the short, supple girl.

"I don't believe we've been introduced," Cinder said as she stepped in front of Roman, presenting herself to the sword and flame wielding mercenary.

"We haven't. Doesn't mean I don't know you… Cinder Fall." Corbeau said as he quickly rolled his wrist, flicking dust, ash and blood off Wilt before sheathing the blade in Blush.

"How exactly do you know about me?" Cinder asked as Corbeau strolled around and quickly climbed up one of the iron "I" beams and sat atop it.

"I know people who know people." Corbeau said innocently as he reached into his coat and pulled out a wrapped up half eaten sandwich. Corbeau's gloved hands quickly tore off the wrapping and tossed it into the air, only to be devoured by a whip of flames and burnt to ash.

"What's the job?" Corbeau asked as he chewed on a bite of his sandwich.

"It's not so much a job as it is...try outs." Cinder explained with a smirk before Corbeau stopped mid-bite and began laughing angrily, with edge in his voice.

"Try outs? Try outs?! How about me walking onto a SDC cargo and passenger train, killing every single defense droid on there without breaking a sweat, and then killing one of the most powerful agents of the White Fang. All while trying to bang his partner, which didn't work out by the way."

"I wonder why." Mercury mused sarcastically.

"Do you want those fancy ass prosthetic legs to be nothing but a pile of smoldering metal and Dust because I can arrange that." Corbeau threatened, not breaking eye contact with Cinder as he held his sandwich by his side.

Cinder tsked and turned her head upwards to speak to Corbeau, "Excuse my wording. This is more of a…examination to see what exactly you're capable of."

Corbeau took another bite of the sandwich and chewed eagerly, "God, I love Vinny's. Roman you like Vinny's yeah?"

"Yes I do actually, a bit lower class than i'm used to but it is good food." Roman replied, annoying Cinder to no end.

"Roman gets it," Corbeau said as he gestured at Roman with his mostly eaten sandwich, "Anyway back to business, what is this 'examination'."

"Wulfric Eis. He's in Vale to visit the SDC's Vale branch and represent the CEO in a particularly important business deal concerning the Dust trade on Remnant," Cinder explained, "Which would be very unfortunate due to my need for a large quantity of Dust."

"Where is he?"

"Penthouse suite of the Vanetti, he has-" Cinder began to explain before Corbeau raised a hand and stopped her.

"Don't ruin the surprise. Now onto my payment." Corbeau said as he flung himself down onto the roof and stood directly in front of Cinder.

"Of course. What's your price?"

"An answer to one question."

"An answer," Cinder asked, completely bewildered by the mercenary's want of a single answer than money, "What is it?"

"Why did you have me kill Adam? He was a terrorist and I have a feeling you don't give a damn about the kingdom's well-being."

"I wanted to solidify a partnership with the White Fang but he was very adamant about not working with me and now that he's gone and his comrades are grieving and they're very willing to work with me." Cinder said smoothly and with poise."You're one cold bitch," Corbeau said as he shoved his left hand into his pocket and began slowly walking backwards, laughing in a low tone as the flame began rushing towards him and jumped up from the ground and into his right hand before creating a perfect sphere of fire, "I'll be done in fifty-one hours or less."

And the four criminals watched as Corbeau Rouge fell backwards off the building into the night sky. A silence took over the group before a quiet groan was heard and Emerald pushed herself off the ground, "What the hell just happened?"

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

 **42 Hours Remaining**

"You ready for this job kiddo?" Noir asked his younger brother as the two brothers circled each other each wearing MMA gloves and shorts on a wrestling mat that they had put in another one of their shipping container "rooms".

Jaune enjoyed the feeling of letting his arms and hands breathe, not being smothered by the wrapping. Sparing was also his favorite time to let them get some air convinently enough.

"It's no big deal Noir, I got a plan all put together." Jaune said as he stepped and went with a quick right jab that Noir dodged.

"A plan you made in thirty-five minutes." Noir said as his leg shot out in a powerful side kick that Jaune jumped away from easily.

"Ever heard of Occam's Razor?" Jaune asked as he rushed forward and delivered a powerful three punch combo but was flipped over Noir's shoulder immediately after and barely managed to land on his feet before being axe kicked in the shoulder.

"Keep it simple stupid." Noir said as Jaune rolled backwards and back onto his feet before charging Noir, punches and blocks were exchanged between the two. Jaune attempted to knee Noir in the kidney, only to have his leg caught and was flipped onto his back...almost. Jaune's hand shot down and the blonde did a backwards cartwheel out of the flip and landed with hands raised.

"Nice recovery." Noir complimented as he ran forward and and attempted to tackle Jaune with his head between Jaune's arm and body, only to have Jaune's forearm wrapped around his throat as he chuckled.

"Come on Noir, you know the guillotine."

"That's right I do." Noir growled as he lifted Jaune off the ground and fell back, slamming his blonde brother into the mat.

Jaune's arm unlocked and the two brothers began grappling on the ground, knees and elbows were thrown and grabs were used as the two brothers continued their conversation.

"The simplest plans usually work the best Noir."

"I'm not doubting you Jaune. I'm just saying you should put more time into your plan."

"I gave myself fifty-one hours and if i'm gonna do the whole announcement thing i'm gonna need to save on planning time and put it into some prep time."

"Don't you think this whole announcement thing is a bit too flamboyant? Even for Corbeau Rouge."

"I have to announce my presence to the world."

"How many assassin slash thieves wear red and tag their frame scenes? I think the world knows you pretty well."

"Let me have my fun! Messing with people as Corbeau is one of the few pleasures in my life."

"Oh yeah right cause your weekly visits with Militia offer zero pleasure."

"Don't be a dick." Jaune growled as he kicked Noir off of his chest where he had pinned him down.

Noir flipped and twisted in the air and landed on his feet, a cocky smirk of fearlessness plastered on his face. He loosened up.

"Oh shit," Jaune muttered as Noir closed the distance between them in a blind of an eye and delivered the fastest and strongest right cross Jaune had felt in awhile. Jaune collided with the steel shipping container and groaned as he righted himself, "Oh so we're using Auras now? Okay."

Jaune smirked as a reddish-orange energy drifted off his body and a black energy began to drift off Noir's, "Been awhile since we spared like this."

"A long while little brother. Think you're up for it?" Noir asked.

"Why not make this interesting? Weapons and semblances?" Jaune asked his smirk growing wider.

"Why not? I'll still kick your ass little brother." Noir said as he pushed his bangs out of his eyes and locked his cobalt blue eyes with his brothers.

"We'll see about that Noir…"

* * *

 **Beacon Academy**

 **37 Hours Remaining**

Ruby Rose's time at Beacon Academy had been very busy, she was either busy studying or busy training with her team which was short a member due to there being a shortage of students this year which lead to two teams being short a member this year. So needless to say this little break, her watching TV with her team and the other team that was short a member, was well deserved and very needed.

Ruby's own team members, Weiss and Yang sat with her on the couch while Pyrrha, Nora and Ren sat in recliners and on ottomans scattered in the small rec room on their floor of the dormitory.

"What else is on?" Yang asked as Weiss boredly flicked through the channels.

"Nothing. How ironic, nine hundred channels and there's nothing to see." Weiss muttered as she clicked passed a Monster Grimm movie and Ruby's eyes lit up.

"Ooh! I love that one! Turn it back! Turnitback!" Ruby demanded before she began trying to steal the remote from Weiss, to the point where Ruby's torso was across Yang's lap.

"Fine. Fine!" Weiss said as he turned the channel back to the Monster Grimm movie that Ruby seemed to enjoy.

"Yesssss." Ruby said with a fist pump as her favorite Monster Grimm of all time destroyed Atlas's largest cities.

"You do seem to enjoy this style of movie." Pyrrha observed as she watched Nora mess with Ren's hair, putting his long black hair into pigtails and braids.

"It's awesome! A giant Grimm attacking a huuuge city and then, just went the Grimm is about to attack city hall, a squad of huntsman and huntresses fly in and take the Grimm down." Ruby exclaimed excitedly to Pyrrha.

"That does seem very entertaining." Pyrrha said with a smile as she began watching the film while her teammates continued to mess around.

The group continued watching the film with Ruby's almost constant commentary of the movie's plot. As the movie began to climax and Ruby was watching with excitement, the movie cut out to a screen with multiple colored boxes and a long beep filled the room.

Yang sat up from her slouch and looked at the TV questioningly, "What the heck?"

"Is there some kind of kingdom wide warning?" Ruby asked before the colored screen fizzled out and was replaced with a black screen with the red image of a crow perched on something in the center of the screen and big, bold red letters along the bottom that said, "Please Stand By."

"Wonder what's going on." Ren said as he pulled out his pigtails that Nora had left in as they watched the movie.

"I've seen that symbol before." Weiss said before the black and red screen jump cutted to the video of a large, extravagant fireplace with an end table off to the side of the fireplace next to a large elegant red and gold chair with a shadowy figure in it.

"Okay what the hell?" Yang asked as she stood up and was quickly joined by Ruby and Weiss once the figure spoke and his shadows seemingly disappeared, revealing a man in a black Grimm mask with red markings, a long red leather coat with black feather and fur around the hood and the bottom trim with the hood up showing only pale red bangs, a black body armor padded shirt, black pants with metal red rectangular studs on the knees black boots and a thin pair of red and black knuckle gloves.

"Hello, ladies, gentlemen, side chicks, friends with benefits...I don't know where i'm going with this," the man said before he reached over a grabbed a glass that looked to be partially filled with alcohol off the table and took a sip, "Some of you may be wondering who I am. You also probably don't watch the news, read the paper or listen to the radio."

"He's not wrong." Yang muttered as Weiss gaped synthetic screen for a few seconds while the red clad clad man was silent.

"I know who that is. It's-" Weiss began, before being cut off.

"My name is Corbeau Rouge. Now you might be wondering why i'm on your TV, scroll, computer or radio, you might be wondering who am I, you also might be wondering why do I look so damn sexy in red. Well I can answer the first two, the last one is just natural born talent," Corbeau said before taking another sip of his drink, finishing it, only to toss it off off screen where the sound of the glass shattering still reached the camera, "Now to answer your second question, who am I? Well that's very simple, i'm A. an assassin, B. a thief, C. a sex machine, or D. all of the above. Which do you think it is?"

Corbeau was silent for a minute and Pyrrha spoke, "He does seem to have a high opinion of himself."

"Yes he does." Ren agreed as Corbeau began speaking again.

"Time's up. And the correct answer is...D. Obviously I mean, come on. Anywho, last question. Why have I hijacked the signal of every single TV, scroll, computer and radio in the city of Vale? It's simple really, i'm just letting everyone know that Wulfric Eis will be dead by midnight. Don't know who he is? That's fine, just know he's a rich asshole who works for the SDC and probably deserves this. By the way, quick side note, i'm not a faunus. I don't even know how that shit started. But anyways, that will do it for me, now back to your regularly scheduled programming."

Corbeau waved mockingly and the screen faded back to black and the red symbol returned with new red writing that said, "This Message Was Brought To You By Corbeau Rouge, Your Friendly Neighborhood Badass."

A eerie silence filled the room as the six students as the black and red screen fizzled out and the monster Grimm movie returned as if nothing had happened, as if Corbeau Rouge's broadcast never happened.

"What the heck was that?" Nora asked.

"I think the vice president of my father's company is about to be killed." Weiss muttered in complete shock.

* * *

 **Vanetti International Hotel**

 **29 Hours Remaining**

"Nice job with the announcement." Noir said over the scroll to Jaune who was currently on the roof of the Vanetti International Hotel wearing a weathered cargo jacket with a light gray hoodie beneath then a white V-neck and his usual jeans and boots.

"Thanks. Couldn't of done it without you Noir." Jaune said as he leaned against the short wall that stopped him from walking off the edge, watching the city lights move and shift with the minutes.

"Yeah I know kid. So what's up? The police have gathered in and around the hotel and you have a personal deadline in about two hours," Noir said, probably relaxing on the couch while watching the show go down, "Every news channel in Vale has eyes on the hotel man."

"Then eventually all eyes will be on Corbeau Rouge." Jaune said with a chuckle.

"And all the panties of the world will become soaking wet for his sexy red leather coat," Noir joked before sighing, "I need to get laid."

"Then go! I got this man, get on Kinder or some shit and pick up a one night stand." Jaune said as he pulled the gray hood up and continued looking at the city surface streets.

"You are the _last_ person I expected to tell me to go get laid while you face your most dangerous job yet."

"I got this, Noir. I'll be safe...i'd be a lot safer if you were out here with me." Jaune said with a faint smile.

"I did my share of killing, Jaune. I'm not eager to do it again." Noir said, his previously joking tone gone completely.

"Just checking bro. I'm gonna leave you alone. Go out and let loose a bit. Oh and what thing."

"What?"

"Use a condom."

"Shut up." Noir said before a sharp click was heard and Jaune knew his jab had done it's job.

"I love my job," Jaune said with a smile as he shoved his phone into his pocket, "Let's hope I can deal with the riot team."

* * *

 **Beacon Academy**

 **28 Hours Remaining**

"This isn't right," Ruby said as she vaulted off her bed onto the floor below, "We should do something."

"What isn't right?" Yang asked, looking up from her magazine to look over to her sister and white haired teammates bunk bed.

"This," Ruby shouted as she gestured around the dorm room wildly, "We should be out there so we can stop Corbeau Rouge."

"Ruby, the police will handle it. It isn't the Huntsmen's place to meddle in civilian affairs. Plus we're barely a month into training." Weiss said sleepily as she rolled over and faced the wall.

"So? Corbeau Rouge had a semblance on file. The police will never be able to handle him." Ruby reasoned as Yang set down her magazine.

"Pyre. The strongest flame based semblance in Remnants history," Yang muttered, "It's only appeared two or three times in Remnant's written history."

"So what if he has a rare semblance. We got this." Ruby said with a smile.

"Ruby. The last person who wielded Pyre was the deciding factor for the Great War." Weiss said simply, not turning around to look at her teammates.

"Ruby, if he finds you he'll kill you-"

"So come with me then." Ruby said interrupting her sister.

Yang was consumed by though for a moment before she sighed deeply, "Fine. But if I die and you don't, i'm coming back to haunt you."

"Got it," Ruby said with a nod, "You coming, Weiss?"

Weiss was silent before the covers that had been over the petite girl were flung off and she huffed as she sat up, "Let me get dressed."

"Yay!"

* * *

 **Vanetti International Hotel**

 **27 Hours Remaining**

"It's showtime." Corbeau said as he secured his boot buckles and his belt, wanting to make sure that none of his tools or weapons would fall out due to his entry plan being a bit more acrobatic than normal.

Corbeau reached into a duffel bag at his feet and pulled out a semi-long length of rope before setting the duffel bag in front of the currently powered down and parked window washing unit and flicked his lighter open before burning his duffel bag and clothes to a crisp. Corbeau made a mental note to rebuy the clothes later on. The crimson merc jumped onto the small wall and stood in front of the window washing unit, his back to the sky. After securing one end of the rope to the unit, Corbeau wrapped part of the rope around his gloved hand and slowly began leaning back until he was standing on the side of the building; only supported by the rope.

Corbeau slowly walked backwards, just barely letting the rope slip through his finger a little bit at a time. This slow process was a bit humiliating to Corbeau, which is why he had chosen to repel down the back of the building to the hallway that lead to the penthouse suite instead of the front where he'd end up in the penthouse's living room but would be watched by every news outlet in Vale while he did so.

"Almost there." Corbeau whispered to himself, thanks to the floor plans he had on file, Corbeau knew that the penthouse hallway was twenty-four feet down from the top of the roof; which lead to him picking a thirty foot rope just in case.

"If this is how I die i'm gonna be so pissed," Corbeau mused sarcastically before stopping just above the beginning of the the wall of glass, "Time to make heads roll."

Corbeau jumped as hard as he could, swinging outwards into the night sky before he swung back towards the building and Corbeau let go of his life line. Flying forward and dropping at the same time, Corbeau crashed through the glass and landed in a roll before quickly taking in the situation.

Eight guards, all wearing standard Atlantian military armor, battle rifles in hands and pistols on their thighs. No problem. Corbeau burst out of his roll and drew Wilt and Blush. The first guard turned and began firing, Corbeau ran in a zig zag pattern before burying the Wilt into the man's stomach and using him as a shield as he shot two more of the guards with Blush. Corbeau slashed outwards, tearing a chunk out of his human shield before rushing forward.

Jaune evaded another guards gunfire by running to the other side of the hall and jumping off the wall as he moved forward, allowing him to close the distance faster. Corbeau kicked the man in the face, sending him spiraling to the side into the wall. After quickly attaching Blush to his belt, Corbeau's lighter came out and flicked open and flames quickly flicked off the lighter and onto the blade; enveloping the crimson blade in flames.

Corbeau slashed, causing a wide arc of flames to leap off the blade and hit his last two opponents; burning them horribly. The crimson clad merc smirked as he saw the door to the penthouse where his target resided. Overtaken with excitement, Corbeau began running toward the door and did a running knee into the door. Only to fly back onto the floor.

"Fucking door!" Corbeau shouted as he stood up quickly, glad that there were no security cameras in the hallway. Corbeau kicked the door and he could hear the thick wood begin to crack before rolling his eyes.

"I don't have to for this," Corbeau said before transferring a little of the fire from his blade to his free hand and allowing the fire to grow larger and get hotter before sending the firebolt into the door, blasting it off it's hinges and into the hotel room, "King of doors bitch!"

"Honey, i'm home!" Corbeau shouted into the penthouse as he stepped inside, through the smoke of his blast.

Corbeau found Wulfric in the penthouse's living room, sitting on the couch with his back to Corbeau as he sipped on a glass wine and looked at the penthouse's amazing view, "Corbeau Rouge. Pleasure to see you decided to join me."

"Listen I don't know if you're gonna try to bargain with me for your worthless life or anything but just know, that no matter what you'll be dead within the next five minutes." Corbeau said simply as the flames that engulfed his blade grew larger.

"You're one of those no nonsense assassins aren't you." Wulfric said as he stood up and turned to Jaune, showing off his stark white suit.

"Quite the opposite but i'm on a time limit." Corbeau growled angrily as he braced himself to run as fast as possible.

"Ahh-" Wulfric began before Corbeau closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds, having vaulted over the couch, and plunged his blade into Wulfric's chest and kept running until he and the dying Wulfric crashed through the window.

"You're insane." Wulfric whispered into Corbeau's ear with his dying breath.

"I live for this shit!" Corbeau shouted as he slashed upwards, tearing Wulfric Eis in half as flames flew off his blade, painting the black night sky with brushstrokes of orange and red.

"I'm untouchable!" Corbeau shouted at the top of his lungs after he moved the residual flames from Wilt to his hands and he stowed the crimson blade.

Corbeau changed positions in the air so that he was falling feet first and did one of the dumbest things of his career, he forces the flames to grow hotter and fired them immediately triggering an explosion. Corbeau flew forward so fast, he could look down and see the massive crowd of people, press and civilians alike, watching him fly through the air and watching Wulfric Eis's body plummet to the ground.

Just as Corbeau planned, the blast shot him across the hotels massive entrance and across the street to a slightly smaller office building, Corbeau could see news cameras turn towards him and he guessed they zoomed in on him so Corbeau simply gave a mock two fingered salute and disappeared from sight.

* * *

 **Vale Rooftops**

Corbeau ran like the wind across the tiled rooftops of the crowded apartment buildings that filled the west side of Vale. The crimson clad man eventually stopped slid down the tiles and onto the surface street, landing on the sidewalk with ease, "I love when a plan comes together."

"Do you now?" A feminine voice rang out in the dark.

Corbeau sighed deeply as he turned around to see three different girl, all of which looked around his age. One of which was a curvy blonde who looked incredibly familiar to him, a petite white haired who Corbeau knew as Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and then there was a completely unfamiliar Red and black haired girl in a combat skirt, corset and a red cloak, "Oh my, what do we have here?"

"The huntresses who are going to bring you to justice...and stuff!" Red said seriously while pointing at Corbeau Rouge over exaggeratingly.

"And people wonder why I drink." Corbeau muttered as he rubbed the lower half of his face.

"What was that?!" Goldie asked loudly accompanied by what sounded like shot gauntlets being cocked.

"Nothing! So, tell what I can do for Remnant's future protectors." Corbeau mused sarcastically as he leaned up against a light post, the blinding light from above obscuring the girls visual on him.

"Turn yourself in." Weiss said snidely causing Corbeau to simply laugh.

"Who exactly do you think you are?" Weiss asked angrily, most likely angry at the red clad assassin's laugh.

"I'm the man who can walk into a tornado and come out the other side like it was a gentle breeze." Corbeau said, coining the saying of one of the Arc brothers' oldest friends.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Goldie asked, getting annoyed by the assassin.

"It means i'm unstoppable sweetheart." Corbeau said as the yellow one finally lost it and charged Corbeau. Goldie threw a combination of punches that Corbeau was well prepared for, causing him to dodge every punch with more ease than the last.

Corbeau ducked under a punch with a spin, only adding to the momentum of his close fisted backhand, sending the blonde spiraling off into the wall, "Boring."

"You bastard!" Goldie shouted as she bounced back, faster and stronger than before. Her swings were quicker and less obvious and Corbeau could tell that something changed.

"Oh so that's your semblance. Turning pain into power. Not bad." Corbeau said as he leaned away from a high kick, but the other two joined the fray now. Weiss jabbed at Corbeau with her famed Multi Action Dust Rapier, Myrtenaster. While the girl in red whipped out a High Impact Sniper Scythe and swung the massive weapon at Corbeau, forcing him to back flip away from the three girls.

"You three are really testing my patience." Corbeau growled as he braced his left hand against the sheathed Wilt that was still hooked to his belt.

"Why don't you use your ability for good?" Red asked as she held her scythe at the ready.

"Because I am a Shadow, I am the true self."

"Is he referring to psychology?" Weiss asked herself aloud before Corbeau let loose a sharp laugh.

"I'm just playin. I just like making money," Corbeau said as he spun around in circles nonchalantly.

"That's it? You kill people for money?!" Goldie shouted before dashing forward and swung a wide haymaker at Corbeau. Corbeau rolled his eyes under the mask and simply backwards cartwheeled out if the way.

"Yes. Do you want me to explain it slowly? I'm an assassin. Which by definition, is a killer, especially one who kills a politically prominent figure for fanatical or monetary reasons. Wow, you really got the whole dumb blonde thing going on huh?" Corbeau said slowly and mockingly.

"You're such a douchebag." Goldie muttered.

"Okay, now that's just hurtful." Corbeau said as he faked clutching at his heart.

"Enough of this." Weiss said as she rotated the barrel of her rapier and a red glyph appeared at the tip of the rapier and fired a red bolt of energy from it. The bolt traveled at a blinding speed, only giving Corbeau enough time to raise his arms to block the blast.

A small explosion erupted on impact, coating and hiding Corbeau in the smoke from the explosion. It didn't hurt him in the slightest, it was a fire based attack even though it wasn't actually fire. The girls watched as the smoke cleared and Weiss realized that the most she had done to Corbeau, was blow off his hood, revealing a head of pale red hair.

Corbeau simply sighed as he flipped his hood back on, "I'm _very_ tired and _very_ annoyed. Do you really want to do this? Because i'm not sure i'll be able to hold back if worse comes to worse."

* * *

 **AN: Not much to say in this note. School is starting soon, lots of depression, blah blah blah. Anyway, follows and favorite to stay up to date on the story and please review telling me what you thought of the chapter. Stay cool and live out loud guys.**


	5. 004: Hot In More Places Than One

**004: Hot In More Places Than One**

* * *

I wear a mask.

And that mask, it is not the hide who I am

But to create what I am

-Author Unknown

* * *

"Three girls want me at the same time, looks like it's a typical Friday night for Corbeau Rouge." Corbeau said with a amused smile, fully aware of the fact that him referring to himself in the third person made him sound like a douchebag. The air surrounding the four fighters was thick with silence and Corbeau could smell fresh bread being baked in one of the apartments nearby.

"You're insane." Goldie spat hatefully at the amused mercenary, finally breaking the silence and causing a rather cocky smirk to take it's place on Corbeau Rouge's face.

"As much as I enjoy talking to a racist, a bimbo and a twelve year old, can we please get back to the part where you attempt to kill me?" Corbeau asked, his smirk not wavering as Goldie's eyes changed from lilac to red and flames seemed to explode off of her.

"First mistake," Corbeau said as he slowly held his arm out and snapped his fingers. The flames surrounding Goldie's body pulled away from her before two separate streaks of fire helixed into the night sky before suddenly turning and hurtling towards the three huntresses in training, "Using fire against me."

The three huntresses jumped in different directions to avoid the impact of the fire bolt, causing it to strike the ground, sending massive amounts of smoke and debris everywhere. Corbeau charged through the dust and grabbed onto one of a shaken up Goldie's gauntlets and pulled her towards him before spinning and kicking her in the face, following up with a kick from his right leg; sending her to the ground for the moment.

The smoke wisped and flowed around Corbeau as Goldie jumped to her feet and swung wildly in the thick smoke, thankfully seeing through smoke was one of the many things he had gotten good at. Corbeau ducked under a wide punch and wrapped his arm around her neck and drove his shoulder into her armpit before grabbing the back of her neck and throwing her away from him.

Goldie stumbled and managed to turn mid-stumble to watched as Corbeau charged her with unparalleled speed and, with a flash of red, drove Wilt into her stomach. Goldie screamed in pain as Corbeau raised his leg and kicked her off the sword and into the wall, knowing full well that she wouldn't die...just wish she would.

"Next in line?" Corbeau asked as Weiss struck from out of nowhere, using the smoke as cover. Corbeau barely managed to dodge the strike before retaliating with a wide roundhouse kick that nicked Weiss' arm. Corbeau asked when realizing it had been her non-dominant one.

The frosty huntress used her rapier very efficiently and effectively, aiming for Corbeau's vitals but there was four major disadvantages Weiss was at when going head to head with the masked assassin. He was stronger, he could take more hits, he was faster, and he had something she would never have; killer instinct.

Weiss stabbed near Corbeau's stomach as he moved to his right before grabbing Weiss' left wrist with his own left hand, slamming right elbow into her left elbow and side punching her throat. The petite girl fell to the ground clutching her throat while at the same time screaming about her now broken arm.

As Corbeau spun around he realized the smoke had cleared from the explosion and that he couldn't see Red anywhere but the sound of a rifle firing definitely sent him to high alert, Corbeau dive rolled behind a nearby car and just saw dust rise from the hit zone of Red's bullet, "Where you at, Red?"

"I'm fifteen and a half!"

"Um...okay? And?" Corbeau asked genuinely confused about what the hood wheeling girl was talking about.

"Earlier you said I was twelve! I'm fifteen...and my sister isn't a bimbo!" Corbeau's eye darted around as he listened to her voice, she was above him in or on top of one of the apartment buildings.

"Point taken. You understand how trash talk works right?" Corbeau asked, this girl may be fifteen but she might just have the mental maturity of a thirteen year old.

"Yes! I get...that!"

Corbeau ran a hand over his face and sighed, "You sure you're fifteen and not just a slightly taller thirteen year old?"

"Uh-huh!"

Corbeau held his head in his hands as he stared at the ground in utter belief, "Not for nothing or anything but shouldn't you be trying to capture or kill me?"

"Oh right!" Red shouted, remembering that Corbeau Rouge was her enemy. The red reaper scanned the area down below to see that Corbeau had moved from his spot from behind to...somewhere.

Corbeau Rouge slowly materialized behind Red on her rooftop of choice, his body looked to be made of smoke and embers before he finally solidified. The red reaper was prone with her weapon in its rifle form, looking around below, desperately searching for her target. Corbeau's permanent smirk remained in tact as he slowly leaned over, careful to not make a sound, until his head was just behind Red's. She smelled like vanilla and strawberries, "Boo."

Red became a blur of red, circling around him with incredible speed as Corbeau spun to see that the girl was no longer a blur, aiming her rifle at his head, and that her silver eyes were filled with hesitation. Corbeau chuckled, hesitation or not it didn't matter, he was still going to beat her. Corbeau's body transformed into smoke and embers in an instant and quickly darted across the rooftop.

The smoke and embers quickly recollected and solidified to reveal Corbeau Rouge once again. There was more to Pyre then these girls realized, one bit of it being a process Corbeau Rouge dubbed as Smoking. Red turned towards Corbeau to only see a wave of smoke and embers rushing towards her and over her before she felt hands grabbing her shoulders and a sudden weight seems to fall on her from above.

Corbeau handstanding on Red's shoulder so that she went to the ground wasn't his best plan ever but it did the trick as he twisted in mid air and landed on Red's lower back, thankful that she had landed on her stomach and not her back or else this would be very awkward.

Corbeau sat just above Red's butt and smiled as he pulled her hood up, internally musing about how they now match as Red struggled under his weight before he spoke, "You're lucky I got a soft spot for cuties in red."

Red continued to struggle, attempting to reach for her weapon before Corbeau leaned over and grabbed the sniper scythe before examining it, "Not bad."

Corbeau expanded the sniper scythe to it's full form before placing it over his shoulder and placed his free gloved hand between Red's shoulder blades as he leaned forward, "Ya see Red, i'm in quite the predicament with you three. You see, I could torch you all to a crisp and I do mean a crisp, there would be nothing left but ash. But, there is a major problem with doing that, killing a Huntsmen or Huntress is a Class Seven offense and if I did kill you three that would raise me to a Class Seven threat. The same Class as Grimm, which means that Huntsmen and Huntresses can work towards my capture and while that might be fun, killing every single defender of our Kingdom isn't exactly high on my bucket list."

"So i'm you see my dilemma, Red?"

"I see that you're smarter than you let on, you act all sarcastic and confident but really you just have all the angles figured out." Red said, surprising calm for the situation she was in.

Corbeau looked down at the girl in bewilderment, she was without fear and it was intriguing to Corbeau. The crimson mercenary was used to being feared but not being called out by a fifteen year old girl who was really in no position to be doing so. Corbeau smiled and leaned down so his head was beside and slightly behind Red's "What's your name beautiful?"

"R-Ruby." The girl stuttered out almost against her will, feeling her face get a little hot for some reason.

"Beautiful name for a beautiful girl." Corbeau remarked as, unbenounced to him, a blush spread across Ruby's cheeks. Painting her pale face a bright red.

"Now while I would love nothing more than to spend the rest of my night with such a lovely girl, I have places to be but we'll meet again my beautiful gem." Corbeau said before standing up and swinging the scythe down and smiling as the scythe went into the roof near Ruby's head with ease. Corbeau began pushing down on the scythe, pinning Ruby to the roof with the long handle of the sniper scythe.

Corbeau jumped off the roof without a second thought and rolled as he hit the ground, smirking as he adjusted his coat as soon as he was his feet. Corbeau chuckled as he began walking to his left before he heard, "Hey!"

Corbeau turned on a dime and gave his most charming smirk as he saw that Goldie had managed to get herself up and Weiss had managed to recover but was definitely at a major disadvantage with her dominant arm broken, being forced to hold her rapier in her right hand. The wound in Goldie's stomach had begun to heal thanks to her aura but she definitely wasn't in combat combat condition and wouldn't be for a week at least. Weiss was no better, her arm would take at least a week to heal even with aura.

Corbeau chuckled as he held his hand out just in front of him and drew in fire from his earlier spar with the girls, watching as the orange flame flickered and burned across his fingers, "I'm going to be blunt, the only reason i'm not going to kill you...is because it would inconvenience me in the long run. So i'm going to leave now and if you want never want to walk again, you'll follow me.

"One day i'm gonna wipe that smirk off your cocky face." Goldie spat, holding her stomach as she leaned against Weiss, as agonizing pain tore through her body.

"You're welcome to try," Corbeau said as he turned and started walking away before spinning around and walking backwards, "Oh and by the way, your sister is pinned to one of the rooftops. Good luck."

And with those last words, Corbeau Rouge continued his casual strut down the street, hands in his pockets as he thought of the girl in red who wasn't scared of him.

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

Jaune groaned as he rolled over in his bed. He hadn't realized how late it really was until he got home, having run another errand after his throw down with what he guessed was Beacon students, to find Noir eating a girl out on their couch and after striping and commenting on Noir's classiness. Jaune simply went to bed, wanting nothing more than to sleep for a year or three but Noir had other plans.

"Yo, Jaune! Wake the fuck up!" Noir shouted as he pounded on the door to the shipping container below. Jaune groaned as he got out of bed and trudged down the iron steps of his little two story, shipping container room.

Rubbing his eyes, Jaune opened the door to come face to face with a three piece suit wearing Noir, "What do ya want, Noir?"

"Police scanners say you escaped at eleven fifty-nine, but you weren't back until three. What else happened while you were out there?" Noir asked as he stepped inside and leaned against the wall as Jaune sat in his desk chair and rolled back to the metal wardrobe where his gear was kept.

"Nothing much really, fought some Huntresses In Training, became interested by one and then ran a personal errand." Jaune said as he pulled out his boots and began cleaning them all the while thinking of his little errand.

"Personal errand? Why does that sound suspicions?" Noir asked playfully as Jaune began lightly applying leather oil to his coat and boots, helping them keep their color and stay durable.

"Probably because it does." Jaune said as he withdrew Wilt and Blush and began to sharpen the former's long crimson blade.

"Gonna share or am I gonna have to stand here all day guessing?" Noir asked, as Jaune began cleaning Blush.

"It was nothing, just a quick visit to Beacon." Jaune said innocently as he began brushing off his armored black long sleeve and his pants.

"Had nothing to do with the one you were interested by?" Noir asked while he leaned forward as Jaune spun around and faced his brother.

"Whaaaaat? No! No…"

"Bullshiter. Spill, what's so interesting bout this girl?" Noir asked as he walked behind his brother and roughly grabbed his shoulders.

"She wasn't scared of me man," Jaune said as he abruptly stood and began pacing in circles while gesturing wildly, "It was so strange, she wasn't afraid or intimidated; if anything she was annoyed that I called her twelve."

"What? Is she short or something?"

"I'd guess five feet when she takes the combat boots off."

"What's with you and short chicks?"

"I don't know man. They kinda just pop up...everywhere apparently."

* * *

 **Downtown Vale**

"This is stupid." Jaune muttered tiredly as he stood in line in one of the most popular clothing stores in Vale. The massive store with filled with teens trying to take advantage of a sale, the air reeked like cheap perfume and desperation for some reason. Jaune rolled his eyes and he watched a girl with dark brown hair who was wearing a beret and sunglasses fight with a girl over a handbag.

The reason Jaune was subjecting himself to this hellish experience was because he was attempting the clothes he had torched during last night's job and while most of his clothes were easily replaced, he had been having trouble with finding a hoodie and a cargo jacket of similar quality and color to the originals. He had managed to find a thick, durable, and soft light gray hoodie, similar to his other one, but was left with the problem of replacing his jacket.

Jaune groaned as the line slowly moved forward, Jaune's eyes began to wander around and he soon spied a small girl out of the corner of his eyes who was in line behind him; staring at his wrappings. The girl's mother little tapped her on the back of the head and spoke to her quietly, "Luna. It's not polite to stare."

"It's alright. I'm kinda used to it." Jaune said as he faced Luna and her mother, both looked very similar with long chestnut hair, small noses and small smiles that seemingly never disappeared.

"I'm sorry. She's a curious one." The mother said, her smile growing slightly at Jaune's friendliness.

"It's okay," Jaune said before crouching down to Luna's level and smiled, "What do you want to know little one?"

"Why are you wearing those?" Luna asked in a small innocent voice, too innocent to hear the truth of that night.

"I was hurt." Jaune said vaguely, knowing that the three words won't satisfy the girl's curiosity.

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't smart enough to avoid the danger, I wasn't strong enough to deal with the danger, and I wasn't fast enough to run from danger once I realized what was happening," Jaune said grimly before smiling, "Be smart, be strong, be fast and nothing will ever hurt you."

* * *

Ruby moaned as hands caressed her body,she rolled onto her back within her dreamscape to look at the one who was causing her such pleasure and came face to face with Corbeau Rouge. Ruby gasped as Corbeau's hands explored her exposed body from above her where he was. Ruby reached up with shaky hands and attempted to remove his black Grimm mask but was stopped as his hand wrapped around her wrist and held it above her head, where it was soon joined by her other one.

Ruby gazed at Corbeau, he had a strong jawline, a smirk that did things to her that she had never experienced before, pale red hair that reminded Ruby of a soft flame that burned forever and if she had to guess, he had pale green eyes, like an emerald that had been left in the rough weather and lost it's vibrant color. Ruby examined his bare body, he was toned but not overly muscled, he had plenty of scars but that only seemed to add more mystery and even more beautiful to him; like a canvas that was just beginning to become a masterpiece. Her eyes wandered all the way down to see his fully hardened member and reacted in the only way that seemed appropriate and blushed a few shades darker.

Corbeau took in all of Ruby's face in an instant, soft black and red hair that reminded him of a dying flame, sterling silver eyes filled with innocence and emotion, rosy colored cheeks paired with a shy, unsure smile. Corbeau's head tilted down to take in Ruby's body, her skin was unusually pale but that didn't distract Corbeau from her small but plump breasts, her slightly rounded hips, and Corbeau couldn't help but stare at the small sensitive bud between her full thighs.

Corbeau held Ruby's wrists down with one hand and ran his other hand up and down her bare stomach and breasts as he pressed his lips against her's. Ruby moaned into the kiss, thinking to herself about how soft his lips were while Corbeau himself thought the same about her's.

Ruby sighed softly as Corbeau pulled his lips away only to be pressed against her neck and for her blush to become even deeper. Ruby managed to free her hands and cupped Corbeau's cheeks, just so she could pull him back into another kis-

* * *

 **Beacon Academy**

Ruby's eyes opened slowly and and she quickly glanced around to see that she was in her dorm room, her partner sleeping in the bed below and her sister sleeping in the bed across. After her teammates had managed to unpin her from under Crescent Rose, they had tiredly made their way back to Beacon and passed out.

Ruby sat up and rubbed her eyes while really thinking about her...dream. Had she really just had a...naughty dream about the man who had broken her partner's arm and had stabbed her sister? I mean, there had to be something wrong with her, thinking of that man that way. Ruby happened to glance down at her pillow to see a note and a rose right beside it.

Ruby's eyes widened as she picked up the rose and began spinning it in between her finger whist reading the note.

 _Dearest Little Red,_

 _Who woulda thought you'd be even cuter when you're asleep, probably because you're not trying to put me in the clink. You're a very interesting girl Ruby Rose and I have a feeling we'll be meeting again very soon, I also have a feeling this is the beginning to a relationship...don't know what kind but we'll figure that one out when the time comes._

 _Sincerely,_

 _C.R._

Ruby read the note three times before smiling and blushing while holding the note to her chest, "I'll see you again, Corbeau Rouge."

* * *

 **AN: It's getting hot in here~ So take off all your clothes~ No? Okay, cool. I don't really have much to say besides that i'm moving again so I don't know when i'll be able to update. I'm not exactly a hundred percent sure what to do with Coco so i'm gonna hold another poll eventually to decide on the four girl or i'm gonna just do whoever feels good and that I come up with a plan for. So follow and favorite and all that crap and review telling me what you thought. Stay cool and live out loud.**


	6. 005: Flame In Waiting

**005: Flame In Waiting**

* * *

"If your hate could be turned into electricity, then you could light up a city."

-Nikola Tesla

* * *

 **Black Tiger Tattoo Club**

" _I'm a sucker for pain  
I got the squad tatted on me from my neck to my ankles  
Pressure from the man got us all in rebellion  
We gon' go to war, yeah, without failure  
Do it for the fam, dog, ten toes down, dog  
Love and the loyalty that's what we stand for  
Alienated by society, all this pressure give me anxiety  
Walk slow through the fire  
Like, who gon' try us?  
Feeling the world go against us  
So we put the world on our shoulders"_

"You've listened to this song for five hours." Jaune deadpanned as readjusted himself on the tattoo table before he turned his head to look over his shoulder to see Yuma Mò, a personal friend of the Arc brothers and one of Noir's old teammates.

Yuma Mò, tattoo artist, information broker, hacker. After Noir had left his team at the start of his year at Beacon to take care of Jaune, his team had fell apart and but they had all managed to land on their feet. Except Lawton, Jaune knew for a fact he died in a bar fight. Yuma leaned over the back of Jaune's arm where his latest work was being created, his extremely long black hair pulled into a tight ponytail, rimless glasses over his onyx eyes to enhance his already advanced faunus eyesight, and a black and white tiger tail that sprouted from the base of his spine.

"It's good music yo." Yuma commented with a joking smile as he continued shading in Jaune's partially finished tattoo, his tiger tail swinging back and forth from his seated position on a stool beside the tattoo table.

"It gets dull after five hours bro." Jaune remarked as he was caught in Yuma's ink. The tiger faunus wore tank tops featuring his shop's logo while work which exposed both of his fully tattooed arms, Jaune could look at them for hours and still not fully comprehend everything on his arms. Symbols, pictures and words in so many different languages that Jaune could be lost in the elaborate ink for days.

"Hater." Yuma said as he reached over and plucked a remote off a small metal table on wheels and pointed it towards his front counter near his register where his wireless speaker was located before changing the song.

 _They want me dead or alive  
They want me dead or alive, I'm just trying to survive  
You niggas falling behind  
You never crossing my mind  
Put that shit on my life_

"How much longer till you're done?" Jaune asked as he winced and his eyes wandered around the main room of the small tattoo parlour and examined the art on the walls.

"You can't rush perfection kid. Don't you think this tattoo is a bit on the nose though?" Yuma asked as Jaune looking back to examine his choice of ink, a red crow wearing a golden jeweled crown that was on fire.

"You think so?" Jaune asked humorously as Yuma wiped off excess ink. Yuma was one of the two people besides Noir who knew of Jaune's nighttime escapades and the other one hadn't been seen in about a year, Jaune got the occasional email and a call once in a blue moon but nothing else.

" _Little bit_ ," Yuma said before set his machine back onto the wheeled table and pushed it backwards into the wall, "There we go kid. I just took your tattoo virginity, I was very gentle just for you."

"Fuck off," Jaune said as he stood up and saw that Yuma was stifling a laugh and deadpanned at the tiger faunus before walking towards the back wall and turning around and looking over his shoulder to get a good look at the tattoo, "Gotta say, Yuma...you're a genius."

"Yes, I hacked Atlases missile guidance system when I was thirteen but me drawing a red bird with a flaming crown on your arm is pure genius," Yuma mused sarcastically as he stood up from his stool and took off his black rubber gloves with two sharp snaps before tossing them into the garbage, "So what's up? Haven't seen Corbeau Rouge on the news recently."

Jaune sighed as Yuma wrapped saran wrap around his arm before he shrugged on his white V-neck, "I mean, I got a text from Roman on my work scroll saying good work and that he'd be in touch once Crimson Bitch wants something and that was two weeks ago."

"Weird. Oh well, in this town there's always work. Even if people don't know it." Yuma said as he tossed the saran wrap back behind the front counter and pulled out an old school laptop.

"Got anything for me?" Jaune asked as he sat in the tattoo chair that was mostly used for forearm, bicep, calf, thigh and torso pieces.

"I don't know, interested in leaning on a small time gang leader?" Yuma asked as he propped his head up with one hand and messed around with his laptop with his other.

"God no! I hate gangland jobs. You fuck with one guy and then the rest of them get all tough and the next thing I know, I just killed forty people and i'm burning down a good part of the warehouse district." Jaune said as he waved his hands around.

"Okay, no gang jobs," Yuma muttered before a few key clicks came and went, "Transporting?"

"Do I look fourteen?"

"Okay, no courier services. Listen kid, nothing big is going down everything is pretty quiet. Maybe it's a sign from above to relax, chill out, meet a girl, fuck said girl until you can't feel your legs." Yuma said as he closed his laptop and slid it back under the counter.

"Wow okay, just straight up assuming that I constantly want to have sex."

"Listen kid, you're seventeen. Of course you do." Yuma said with a smile as he took off his glasses and undid his taunt ponytail to put in a much looser one.

"Not _all_ the time." Jaune muttered quietly, drawing a laugh from Yuma.

"Oh shut it, Blondie. I know about your thing with that pretty little piece from Junior's." Yuma said with a sly smile as he reached under the counter and pulled out a bottle of scotch.

"How?!"

"I'm a grown ass man. I go in there, I drink. I see you come in and chat her up, I see you take her away from the main floor, I see you come out alone, I see her come out a few minutes...with very shaky legs. I can put two and two together." Yuma said before taking a drink straight from the bottle and then stowing the bottle back under the counter.

"I sometimes forget that basically all of my friends are older than me and experienced criminals." Jaune groaned as he leaned back in the tattoo chair and crossed his legs.

"Hey man, when Noir left we fell apart and no one wants to hire a half trained Huntsman with no real formal education so we did what we had to do to live. Noir especially, he was taking care of your little ass." Yuma said as he stood and began packing away his machine and the inks.

"I was there, I remember." Jaune remarked dryly as he watched Yuma work with professional precision,

"Remember that time you almost burnt your brother's apartment down when you tried to blow out your birthday candles." Yuma mused as he leaned against the tattoo table, his tattoos stretching and moving with the muscles under his skin.

"Yeah I was eleven, it was my first birthday after the accident." Jaune said with smile remembering how his brother and company had went out of their way to pool what little money they had at the time and gave Jaune easily one of his best birthdays yet.

"Yeah, I remember my eighteenth birthday that year. I got my first tattoo with your brother and Sax." Yuma said before returning to the counter and messing with a dagger he had left lying out.

"Yeah I remember that, you whined like a little bitch." Jaune claimed with a smirk plastered on his face before Yuma threw the dagger across the room, embedding it into the wooden throwing knife board behind the tattoo chair.

"Shut your mouth, Arc. Or i'll give you the beat down like I did to your brother back in the day." Yuma said as he pointed to the blonde teen, a dangerous but also joking look filling his eyes.

"I remember that! You tackled him into our coffee table and it broke. Then Noir grabbed the leg of the table and smashed over your head." Jaune said, his smirk unwavering before Yuma stood up and reached under the counter and brought a sheathed black katana into view.

"Do I need to use this?" Yuma asked before he spun the katana using the ring attached to the guard and the katana shifted into a repeater rifle.

"Nah. I already have enough scars." Jaune mused sarcastically.

The ring of a tiny bell rang through the small tattoo parlour and the rickety door swung open as a well dressed Noir walked into the establishment, "What's up peoples?"

"Nothing much. Your brother handled his first tattoo surprisingly well." Yuma said before he set down his rifle and walked over towards Noir to share a brotherly hug.

"Good," Noir said before pulling away from Yuma and unbuttoning his suit jacket before leaning against the front counter, "Let me see."

Jaune stood up and pulled up the right sleeve of his shirt before turning around, exposing the saran wrapped tattoo. Noir stepped forward and leaned in close before whistling as he examined it, "Not bad, Yu. Some of your best work."

"I know." Yuma admitted with faux modesty as he returned to his stool behind the counter, watching as Noir continued to examine the tattoo now embedded into his brother's skin.

"If only your genius could be in other areas besides computers and art." Jaune said, wiping the shit-eating grin off the tiger faunus's face.

"I have a masters in mathematics!"

"Under a fake name!"

"You two need to chill." Noir muttered as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a flask and took a swig before pursing his lips.

The tattoo parlour's door swung open again and a light ringing filled the room as a man around Noir and Yuma's age entered the shop. The man had semi wild but also well kept black hair with white highlights, dark gray eyes like the clouds before a typhoon and a nervous smile that didn't seem to fit the man. The white garrison jacket he was wearing fit his body well and a black V-neck underneath with slightly weathered blue jeans and normal black and white sneakers.

"Yeah, I can hear you two from outside." The man said as his awkward and nervous smile remained unwavering.

"Saxon?" Noir asked, his voice filled with disbelief and questioning as he set down his flask.

"Hey gu-"

"Fucking asshole!" Noir shouted as he tackled Saxon to the ground and began swinging at his exposed body and head.

"This is gonna be our entire day isn't it?" Yuma asked.

* * *

 **The Club**

"So you've been in prison for the past two years?" Jaune asked over the loud music of The Club. After fighting off Noir, Saxon half explained everything and then declared that he needed a vanilla frappuccino, a large pepperoni pizza, a fifth of scotch, and a pack of cigarettes.

"Yep. But not as myself." Saxon said as he eagerly drank his coffee, earning confused looks from the three others at his table as Yuma at the same time stole a piece of pizza.

"Explain." Noir said simply before he took his shot of whiskey that Militia had brought over for him as soon as they had arrived at the club.

"Okay so I was in Atlas doing a few jobs for the Kostello Family and to make a long story short…I ended up sleeping with the bosses engaged daughter," Saxon began,before taking a massive bite of his pizza and then continuing, "But you see that wasn't the big problem, afterwards we ended up talking a lot and I ended up convincing her to back out of a marriage that she would have been miserable in."

"I don't see how this got you impersonating someone in prison." Jaune said simply before he grabbed Saxon's frappuccino and took a sip.

"Let me finish. So as it turns out, the so to be husband was from the rival mob family and this wedding was supposed to make peace between the families so naturally everyone pointed their finger at the guy who actually talked to her and asked what she wanted," Saxon said grimly as his eyes flickered across his palm up hand where electricity arced between his open fingers, "So after I was tortured for a few days and used every bit of willpower I had not to annihilate the place, the daughter snuck into the basement where I was being held but was caught almost right after she stepped into the room. After a good amount of begging from the daughter, the boss gave me a choice. Go to prison impersonating his nephew who had a warrant out for assault or be killed. Needless to say, I didn't want to kill everyone in the room or die so I picked the first one."

"How'd you impersonate the nephew?" Yuma asked as Noir and Jaune listened intently while both of them quietly fought of the fifth of scotch, the latter wanting to drink it and the former trying to stop his younger brother from drinking in public.

"They hacked into Atlas's criminal database and changed his picture, fingerprints, and identifying marks to mine. I digitally became him and these days, that's all that matters." Saxon said as he grabbed the bottle of scotch from Noir and Jaune and unscrewed the top before taking a drink straight from the bottle.

"Woah, take it easy," Noir said as he pulled the bottle away from Saxon's greedy lips and scoffed as he sloshed the liquor around in the bottle, "You drank half of it you dick."

"Don't exactly have that in the pen." Saxon said with a smile and half linden eyes.

"They had these though," Yuma said as he picked up Saxon's pack of cigarettes and wave them around a bit before tossing them back onto the table, "You don't smoke."

"Prison habit." Saxon said as he grabbed the pack and tore the wrapping off before smacking the top of the pack against the back of his right hand where a simple cross was tattooed.

"Cigarettes are like currency in there yeah?" Jaune asked curiously as his eyes wandered towards Militia, who was wandering from table to table, taking and delivering orders.

"That's right," Saxon said before he removed a single cigarette from the pack and held it between his thumb and index finger, presenting it to everyone at the table, "Two hundred of these got me a batch of freshly baked cookies."

"Ninety lien worth of cigarettes bought you a dozen cookies? Wow talk about a rip off." Yuma muttered as Saxon repositioned his cigarette and whipped out a lighter to light it.

"I'm not gonna get into the finer points of economy with you." Saxon said after he took a drag and blew his smoke into the air. Jaune glanced behind him as Saxon and Yuma began arguing about the difference between prison economy and regular economy and smiled as he caught Militia staring at the group. The red clad girl smiled at Jaune with a light blush before turning back to work.

"Anyway, I have some news. When I got out, a man in a black suit was waiting for me. He said he's from Cerberus." Saxon said as Jaune tuned back into the conversation, noticing that half his cigarette was now gone.

"What's Cerberus?" Jaune asked as he leaned forward against the table as he grabbed a piece of pizza from the ever shrinking pie.

"Mercenaries, the best mercenaries on Remnant actually. Huntsmen who want a bigger payday and elite soldiers sick of risking their lives for shit pay." Yuma said as he hailed a waitress, who began strutting her way to the table.

"What did he want?" Noir asked, clearly intrigued by the mention of Cerberus.

"He knew who I really was and offered me a job as a quote unquote 'Spectre'," Saxon said as he made very obnoxious air quotes, "What the hell kinda name is that anyway?"

"Totally stupid."

"Absolutely ridiculous."

"Dumb as fuck."

"So what exactly is a Spectre anyway?" Jaune asked.

"It's supposed to be a position where i'd work with two or three other guys, assassinations and creating a need for mass graves mostly." Saxon said surprisingly nonchalantly even though he was talking about killing massive amounts of enemies.

"Sounds fun," Yuma said with a haunting smile as he spoke into his glass, waiting for the waitress to hurry her ass up, "You gonna take it?"

"I did. So I guess in a way, this is my send off before I spend two months in Eastern Vaccuo killing rebels," Saxon said before glaring at Jaune jokingly, "Not like I can return to my old form of work seeing as how a certain leather clad dick is cornering the market."

"Not sorry. Business is booming at the moment and I am drowning in lien." Jaune said cockly, earning himself a headlock from Saxon before he began viciously rubbing his knuckles against Jaune's head.

"Let me go!" Jaune shouted as he tried to struggle out of Saxon's headlock. "This isn't funny you dick!"

"Pretty funny from where i'm sitting." Yuma muttered as the waitress finally arrived and asked for his order, causing Saxon to stop subjecting Jaune to torture. "Four Black Sparrows and if you could do me a favor, put them on Noir Arc's tab."

"Asshole." Noir muttered before knocking on the table, earning the waitresses attention."Four shots of Snowfall. Also on my tab."

"Three Showdowns and one Moonlit Sonata." Saxon said before releasing Jaune and speaking again as the blonde attempted to straighten his clothes. "Also on Arc's tab."

The waitress left with a nod and Yuma turned to Saxon and gave a look that was half misunderstanding and half confused. "You hate Moonlit Sonatas, you always say they're too sweet."

"They are." Saxon's said with a smile before grabbing the nap of Jaune's neck and shaking him. "It's for him."

"I'm not sure if i'm okay with you getting my baby brother drunk." Noir grumbled, earning a laugh from Saxon as the monochrome haired man ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't know what you're talking about Noir, you're the one paying for it, remember?"

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

"Sucks that he's gone so soon." Jaune muttered as he and Noir lounged on the couch, watching the six o'clock news in their living room as Noir briefly tossed a tennis ball into a shipping container before catching it as it recoiled back.

"He had a week and we spent that week partying, I can't think of a better send off." Noir mused jokingly, a gleam in his cobalt eyes as he continued the repetitive throw and catch motion with the tennis ball.

"Noir."

"What's up little bro?"

"Wanna steal something?"

Noir scoffed as the ball smacked into his hair and his fingers wrapped around the green fuzz before looking towards his brother, "Always brother."

* * *

 **AN: Wanted to introduce Cerberus and the rest of Noir's old team for reasons...important reasons...don't think about it too much. This was kinda based off an incident where I picked my cousin up from juvie a few days ago sooo...take that as you will. Follow and favorite to stay up to date on the story and leave a review telling me what you thought. Later.**


	7. 006: Red Flames and Red Cherries

**006: Red Flames And Red Cherries**

* * *

"Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it."

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

* * *

"FUCK!"

"Jaune-"

"FUCK!"

"Jaune, calm down."

"FUCK, FUCK, FUCKITY, FUCK!

"Once more with feeling."

" **FUUUUUUCK!** " Jaune shouted one last time, his voice echoing throughout the warehouse before he collapsed face down onto the couch.

"You done?" Noir asked from his place in the leather recliner, relaxing in ripped jeans, a black V-neck and a knit gray long sleeve underneath with the sleeves pushed up, revealing the scattered tattoos on his arms.

"Three weeks!"

"I know."

"We plan for three _fucking_ week and then they suddenly move the Royal Emerald!" Jaune shouted into the couch, referencing the gem they had been planning to sell for three weeks. Three weeks of casing the museum, three weeks of planning, three weeks of hard work; wasted.

"Calm down bro." Noir said in a ordering tone as he stood and sat on his brother's back, smiling as Jaune let out a small groan.

"Three weeks…"

"I know."

"Wasted…"

"I know."

"Can I get drunk please?"

"Not if you plan on helping me plan a new job."

"New job?" Jaune asked, raising his head and cranking it around to look at his brother.

"I've been doing this a lot longer than you, Jaune. So I, your talented and amazing brother, have a contingency plan." Noir said she he pulled his scroll out of his pocket and unlocked the device before flicking through files.

"Whatcha got?" Jaune asked curiously before shoving Noir off of him, causing the dark haired Arc to fall and hit the floor.

"The Black Diamond." Noir said before he tossed his scroll up from his position on the floor and Jaune promptly caught it, reading an article about a rare black diamond that was just moved to Vale from Mistral after it was cut and refined.

"Mhm."

"Whatcha think?"

It was a solid target, would definitely bring in some major cash for the brothers and at the moment their income wasn't exactly indispensable; mostly due to them deciding to finally begin building Jaune apartment next to Noir's, which involved them installing motion activated turrets around the build site to prevent thieves from breaking into the warehouse, "Let's do it, got an entrance plan?"

"Come on," Noir muttered, sounding slightly offended by his brother's question, "Who do you think I am? Also, I have a cherry on top."

"Cherry on top?" Jaune asked as he straighten and and sat with his legs crossed and his cobalt eyes filled with confusion, which was a rare occasion for Jaune when it came to Noir.

"A big fucking cherry on top."

* * *

 **Beacon Academy**

Ruby groaned as she collapsed onto Weiss' bed, having just spent her past hour and a half studying for Port's test on Nevermore weaknesses which might have been helpful during initiation when she, Weiss and Yang had to fight a Nevermore by themselves while Pyrrha, Ren and Nora fought a Deathstalker.

"Why are you on my bed?" Weiss hissed, hands on her waist as she jutted out her hip. Why couldn't Weiss just let her sleep? Her brain hurty and she needed a nap or something...or maybe she needed to slip into a coma. Weiss couldn't nag her there.

"Tired." Ruby muttered into Weiss' overly expensive, feather stuffed comforter.

"You can be as tired as you want, just not on my bed." Weiss snapped as she began pushing Ruby off the bed, causing the redhead to flail uncontrollably as she fell off the bed.

"Why are you so mean?" Ruby groaned into the floor as Yang laughed uncontrollably from her own bed, already having changed into her pajamas while her teammates were still in uniform.

"Why are you so lazy?" Weiss asked the unmoving, Ruby shaped, blob on the floor beside her bed.

"Because tired." The blob muttered into the carpet.

Weiss simply groaned in an unheiress like way and rolled her eyes before giving up and retrieving her nightgown before stomping off to the bathroom, no doubt taking a shower before bed. Yang giggled as the blob resembling her sister crawled up on her own bed and buried her face into the pillows.

Yang stared into the ceiling fan as her smile slowly faded and she couldn't help but mutter what Corbeau Rouge had said about himself three weeks ago, "I'm the man who can walk into a tornado and come out the other side like it was gentle breeze."

"Isn't that what Corbeau said before the whipped our butts like it was nothing?" Ruby asked, she _knew_ it was what he had said but she had a feeling the meeting with the mercenary had impacted her sister more than she'd like to admit and Ruby didn't want to hurt her sister in anyway and wanted to create the illusion that the meeting hadn't affected her. And people said she could be dense. That was silly.

"Like it was nothing…yeah, right." Yang muttered as she rolled over, her back now to her sister as she flicked through her scroll causing Ruby to groan as she realized that she had dug herself into a hole.

"Yang," Ruby whined before she flung herself across the room and onto Yang, "Yang~."

"What?" Yang asked as she rolled over, attempting to get the smaller girl off of her but only served to move the girl from her side to her stomach where Ruby confined to thrash.

"Don't be mad!" Ruby demanded before Yang huffed and rubbed Ruby's head.

"I could never be mad at you, Rubes." Yang said as she rubbed the smaller girl's head before a mocking, sinister laughter filled the room.

Chills traveled down Yang's spine as she had a sinking suspicion about the laugh, the blonde lunged away from her sister and retrieved her scroll from the ground to see the same screen they had all seen three weeks ago. Black with the red crow and lettering that said the same thing as before, "Please Stand By."

The image fizzled out to a beautiful shot of Vale's skyline, the CCT visible in the distance. It was beautiful really, lights painted the night sky all manners of colors but not enough to outshine the beautiful stars. A beautiful sight to the sisters indeed, until Corbeau Rouge stepped into frame. Trademark smirk present as the camera panned back to reveal his trademark red and black clothing.

Ruby stare at him for a few seconds too long before blushing softly and shaking her head rapidly, possibly in an attempt to be rid of the red coloring her pale cheeks. It wasn't her fault, after that dream three weeks ago, anytime she even thought about the mercenary she became a blushing mess.

Corbeau cleared his throat before beginning, "Ladies, gentlemen, guy who runs the noodle cart on first and twenty-second; love your work my man. Anyway, you may be wondering why i've taken over your scroll, TV or radio; well, it's simple really, you see that building right there?" Corbeau pointed to a large "U" shaped building over his shoulder which Ruby and Yang knew as the Crimisi Gallery, a famous private art gallery where the wealthy could show off their art to other people of wealthy, "Well if you don't, that is the Crimisi Gallery and it was where the Black Diamond will be held for the next three weeks but I will be stealing it by ten thirty tonight."

Ruby's head snapped to the digital clock on her night stand, it was just a light past eight, Ruby buzzed with excitement from her most recent idea; she would sneak out after Yang and Weiss fell asleep and attempt to stop Corbeau Rouge...from stealing or hurting anyone of course. Duh.

"Transmission over." Corbeau said before the image fizzled out and happy music streamed out of Yang's scroll as a cartoon of Corbeau Rouge ran across Yang's screen, fire in his little hands, before the screen went black.

Yang sighed tiredly before she tossed her scroll onto the floor and rolled over, turning her back to Ruby, "I'm gonna get some sleep, Ruby. Night."

Ruby climbed off Yang's bed and marched to her own before flinging herself onto the soft mattress, Yang's attitude made her feel guilty for liking the mercenary. It wasn't her fault right? He was just so… Ruby groaned, she had no real idea why she liked him so much. Maybe her field trip tonight would answer that question.

* * *

 **Vale: A Few Blocks Away From The Crimisi Gallery**

Jaune Arc sat with his legs dangling over the edge of of the brick building he had chosen as his hype up building. A hype up building was a building that Jaune always waited at before a job, a place where he'd hype himself up and get his adrenaline pumping before the job. Jaune's cobalt eyes flicked to the right to see his black and red mask on the ledge next to to him, the hollow red screen that usually covered his eyes stared at him.

Jaune always compared looking at the mask to looking into a mirror. Even after he stops putting it on forever, it will always be a part of him; the wild and crazy part that everyone else suppressed, the part he released. Like a cunning animal, an animal who had no opposition. Jaune wrapped his hand around the mask and simply held it in his lap as he childishly swung his legs, his boots thumping against the brick like a heartbeat.

 _Bum bum_

 _Bum bum_

 _Bum bum_

 _Bum bum_

 _Bum-_

"Jaune, you ready on your end?" Noir asked over the radio which Jaune heard through the clear earpiece in his ear. Jaune stood up on the ledge and secured the mask to his face before sighing, he couldn't bring Wilt and Blush onto the mission due to his specific entry strategy.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

* * *

 **Crimisi Gallery**

Corbeau Rouge silently ran across the rooftops, looking at the massive crowd that had gathered outside the gallery. He could see news channels from every corner of Remnant along with a shocking amount of civilians, way too many civilians. After examining the massive crowd closer, Corbeau found something odd. They were fans. Shirts with cut outs of his head plastered onto them, giant cut outs of him on signposts and all.

Corbeau was confused, wondering if they actually realized he was a killer and a thief and not a celebrity. The mercenary could have swore he actually saw a guy selling T-shirts with his own face on them out of the back of his van. Corbeau shook his head as he continued running, and Noir wondered why he only had a single friend outside of The Life. Because people were fucking crazy.

He could also see a massive amount of blue uniforms, police. Corbeau could help but smile, there had to be every cop in the city in the gallery and outside. Just as planned.

Corbeau smoked across the street, his boots scraping across roof as he ran even even faster. He would need to gain a lot of speed for this to work. It was in his sights, the vent into The Crimisi Gallery. Noir had done the calculations thankfully, there was a twenty foot gap between the roof he was currently on and the vent directly into the air ducts of the gallery.

The vent was twenty-five feet high of the ground, which was roughly over a foot above the roof. Which meant he'd have to jump half the way then smoke the rest of it, just to avoid the fan just inside the vent that could possibly blow him in every direction and mess up the entire plan and possibly him.

Corbeau quickly approached the ledge, this entrance would require precision, cunning, skill beyond his years. An due to Corbeau only having one of those things, he over jumped it height wise and smashed his face into the stone wall of the gallery, before grabbing onto the vent as he pressed his hand against his face. He couldn't get a nosebleed, he couldn't leave blood behind, he'd be screwed if he did.

Corbeau quickly smoked inside the vent, not wanting to be spotted, and passed the fan unscathed before reforming and tearing off his mask to press his hand against his nose.

"Shit," Corbeau swore as he felt his Aura begin to clot the blood, "Smooth move jackass."

Corbeau rested a moment before replacing his mask and Noir's voice filled his ear, "How are things going on your end?"

"They're going," Corbeau muttered as he began crawling through the vents on his elbows and knees, "How bout you?"

"Smooth as silk little brother."

Corbeau smiled as he smoked forward, his feet slamming into the wall of the vent that formed a "T" shape. Knowing he had to go right, Corbeau lunged forward and smoked skidding to a stop on his hand and feet. He was almost there. Corbeau found himself moving through the vents like a running cat, nimbly on his hands and feet. He smiled to himself, another weird talent, one that might come in handy.

After multiple turns, Corbeau finally reached the vent cover he was looking for; the vent cover that acted as the air outtake for the Black Diamond's display room that was, strangely enough, filled with civilians and guards alike. His prize was in the very center of the room, in an almost stereotypical large glass display case and was beautiful to Corbeau. The diamond was almost as large as his fist and black as the night sky.

Corbeau reached onto his belt and pulled out three of one of his favorite tools, flashbang grenades. Corbeau laid on his back in the vent and pressed his feet against vent cover, lacing his fingers through the three pins on the grenades, "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready."

Corbeau kicked out sending the vent cover into the room as he pulled the flashbang pins and tossed them into the crowded room, "Four to go."

"Get down! Get down!" Corbeau heard before he pressed his hands against his ears, where an ear piercing screech of a sound was barely heard as he saw a bright flashing light reflect off the gray walls of the vents.

Shouts and groans reached Corbeau's ears after the light died down and sound stopped and the mercenary took that as his cue to enter the room. The crimson clad criminal slid out of the vent and landed on the marble floors with a dull thump, most likely a nonexistent sound to the occupants of the room; all of which were either wandering around and attempting to feel out in front of them with swinging arms or on the ground, clutching at their ears.

Corbeau calmly walked across the marble floor and leaned forward, his breath fogging up the glass of the display case. The red eyes of his Grimm mask shined against the pitch black gem, it was a beautiful gem really and it was his now. Corbeau heard the sound of his lighter flick open and watched out of his peripheral vision as orange flames danced from the lighter to his right hand.

Corbeau's next task required a small amount focus, something he had in spades at the moment as he focused his aura and watched as the flames slowly changed from a soft orange to an icy blue. Most people assume blue flames are actually colder than red or orange simply based on color, a common misunderstanding, but one that couldn't be farther from the truth. Blue flames were hotter and for the moment, Corbeau needed the heat.

Corbeau smirked as he pressed his gloved hand against the glass where the glass began to crack and liquefy. Drips of molten glass slid down the glass case and onto the cool floor, the glass was thick; he'd need to hurry if he was gonna make it out on time. Corbeau pressed his flamed hand into the glass, causing it to bubble as more molten glass slid down the display.

After a moment, he managed to break through and snag the Black Diamond off it's display stand. Corbeau quickly pocketed the gem and turned to see guards running at him from the painting filled hallway outside of the display room. The mercenary flicked away his icy blue flames before quickly pushing through the temporarily blind and deaf occupants of the display room and presenting himself to the guards, "Gez, you guys took your time. Is this really all Vale's finest could muster up to take me down?"

Corbeau lunged forward and smashed his fist into the first guards face, sending him head over heels as a second guard swung his baton at the crimson clad man in a wide arc. Corbeau ducked under the baton and quickly pulled a knife out from behind his coat that was thrown into a third guards leg before smashing his fist into the throat of the second guard, taking his baton. Corbeau jumped through the air, smashing his foot down on the screaming third guard before whipping what was now his baton across a fourth guard's face. Withdrawing his knife from the now unconscious guard's leg, he threw it into the last guards shoulder, causing the man to lurch back in pain before he was kicked in the face where his head was sent back into the wall.

"It's like they don't want to catch me or something," Corbeau muttered as he pulled his knife from the unconscious guard's shoulder and sheathed it before closing his baton, tossing it up and catching it, "Souvenir."

The sounds of groans and reached his ears as he walked away, his boots clicking softly against the marble. Most people would see his mercy on the guards as a weakness, but in all honesty, he didn't have a reason to kill them. Sure, they were in his way but that was no reason to kill them; they were just a bunch of guys doing their jobs. Hell, during the fight he'd seen three wedding rings. He couldn't widow three woman and possibly take away the father of a bunch of kids for no reason. It was just cruel and Corbeau wasn't into being cruel, he was into money so as long as none of them had a contract on them; they'd live. No one would die unnecessarily, those guards during his last job where a calculated misfortune.

"How are you doing?" Noir asked, breathing heavily.

"I'm doing. How are you? You sound tired."

"There's so much lifting to do ya know?" Noir asked with a laugh.

"Better pick up the pace, this show is about to hit it's climax." Corbeau said with a smirk as he came to a stop in the gallery's spacious and extravagant entrance hall.

"I don't wanna go to school, I just wanna break the rules." Corbeau sang as he skipped through the entrance way, finding a semblance of humor in the song seeing as how a previous dream of his was to attend Beacon and here he was, breaking rules.

The double doors of the gallery slid open and all eyes turned to see Corbeau Rouge skipping out, humming happily to himself before a large number of assault rifles were shoved in his face and a large amount of civilians began screaming his name in what could only be described as admiration, "Woah! I just wanted to have a chat with whoever is in charge."

"Out of the way! Out of the way, psycho!" Corbeau heard a man shout as he pushed through the crowd, Corbeau could see a man in a white shirt and tac vest push through the line of adoring fans and the uniformed officers who held the crowd back from Corbeau and all the officers who currently had him under the gun.

Corbeau rose his arms and was able to examine the man in further detail as he stood in between to of the armed officers who had him at gunpoint, he was a jackal faunus with mess black hair arranged around his jackal ears and green eyes and was wearing a white collared shirt and black tie under a black tac vet with "VPD" across the chest and slacks that had a detective's badge on the waist, along with a handgun holstered under his left arm, "And who might you be detective?"

"Detective Kidia, i'm the one in charge of the task force tasked to put you behind bars." Kidia explained, drawing a soft chuckle from Corbeau as the noise of the crowd surrounding him began to blur as his chuckle rose to a loud laugh that echoed throughout the garden in front of the gallery.

"Great job you've been doing so far. Tell me, what's my kill count? Thirty-six? Thirty-seven? How many paintings have I stolen? Fourteen? Fifteen? How many pounds of Dust have I looted from SDC trains? How many gems have I taken," Corbeau asked with a smirk that he knew made the detectives blood boil, but he also knew he was about to make a fool out of the poor faunus, "Tell me, would you go so far as to say I am the Vale Police Department's top priority?"

"I would." Kidia nearly snarled, Corbeau internally mused about how much this detective must hate him.

"Would you even go so far to say that you have every available officer here tonight to make sure I end up in chains?"

"I would."

"So tell me, what do you think would happen to the meager skeleton crew you left at the station if they, oh I don't know, were to respond to a bank robbery?" Corbeau smiled, the crescendo of their plan, the real trick behind all the smoke and mirrors, the big fucking cherry.

A look of pure awe ran across Kidia's face for a split second before fury bathed his pale face and he turned a bright red and shouted into his earpiece, "He played us! Send units to every bank in Vale!"

"What about the jewelry stores? Or the closed dust shops?" Kidia looked ready to kill Corbeau, his face was every shade of red imaginable as he barked the next few words.

"Arrest him!"

"Sorry guys, not gonna happen." Corbeau said before Smoking away, past the firing squad, past the line of officers preventing the crowd to move closer, and into the crowd.

"I want that bastard in cuffs!" The jackal faunus roared as Corbeau Smoked and ran through the crowd, laughing as he zigzagged and doubled back multiple times simply to play with the officers before he burst out of the back of the crowd; still laughing.

Kidia roared as Corbeau Rouge disappeared into the dark streets of Vale, with a gem worth millions of lien and god knows what else and to make matters worse for the detective; Corbeau's "fans" were even more in love the crimson clad mercenary.

* * *

 **Vale National Bank**

"Jaune, you ready on your end?" Noir asked into his earpieces as he and Yuma sat across from the Vale National Bank in their getaway vehicle of choice, a goddamn minivan.

"Yeah. I'm ready." Noir heard Jaune mutter into his earpiece.

"I feel like a freakin' soccer mom driving this thing." Yuma complained from the driver's seat as he tapped away on his laptop, breaking past firewalls or whatever. Noir never really understood technology like Yuma did, he could hook up a TV with enough effort but breaking past the biggest bank in Vale's security? Yeah...no.

"It's inconspicuous." Noir muttered simply as he checked his tranquilizer guns, the two pistol sat his lap as he looked out his window at the mostly empty bank. Tonight was the night they were receiving a brand new shipment of lien from the mint on the other side of town; it was the only reason the bank was still operational at this time of night.

"Inconspicuous my ass, what's a soccer mom doing outside a bank at nine thirty at night?" Yuma asked in annoyance as the _tap tap tap_ of his keyboard filled the minivan.

"Drop the soccer mom thing, Yu," Noir said as an armored car passed them, the now empty armored car that had just dropped off all the fresh lien from the mint, "How's the security?"

"Wait and ask me again in ten seconds."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna do that." Noir said with a look of annoyance more than anything before a short roar sound rang from Yuma's laptop and Noir could see a small, black and white, cartoon tiger with a speech bubble that was confirming the state of the hack.

"Annnnnd, done," Yuma said with a taunting smile as he closed his laptop, "Was that hard?"

"Shut up." Noir mumbled as he swung the minivan door open and hopped out, closely followed by Yuma who slung a messenger bag over his shoulder as the two black clad men walked across the street.

"Make me." Yuma shot back as he pulled the black ski mask he had had in his back pocket over his face as Noir did the same.

"What are you? Five?"

"Bitch, I might be."

"Unsurprising." Noir muttered as he opened the door to the bank without resistance and walked through the short hallway and into the massive main room of the bank. The sharp sound of air bursting filled the air as Noir aimed and fired his tranquilizer gun at the security guards and bank tellers as they quickly moved through the expansive main room.

"Nice job, N." Yuma said with a hint of joking sarcasm in his voice, which wasn't exactly an odd thing when concerning Yuma Mò.

Their timing was perfect. The hit it right after the armed guards had helped store the lien and left in their armored car and right before the tellers and security guards shut down for the night. It was perfect all except for one thing.

"Ah, the vault," Yuma said enthusiastically as he approached the large, thick, metal door in the bank's basement, "My favorite."

"Did you actually remember the charges this time?" Noir asked before Yuma rolled his eyes and opened his bag, pulling out thick doughy bricks that both of them knew were explosives.

"That is was once and you know it." Yuma remarked as he tossed two of the bricks to Noir and the two criminals began applying the thick dough to the vault door, tearing off long strips and applying them to the metal in a large circle.

The two took a few steps back and Yuma removed an almost stereotypical looking detonator from his bag, "One for the money."

His thumb pushed up on the plastic cover over the detonate button, "Two for the show."

"Three to get ready." Yuma set his thumb against the button ever so softly.

"Just fucking go!" Noir shouted before Yuma pressed down and the ground shook, Noir could feel the intense heat against his back as the explosion shook the entire bank and the Arc groaned as he pressed the heels of his hands against his ears.

"That's always the best part." Yuma said before a loud bang rang through the small basement as the huge vault door fell forward, slamming into and cracking the concrete of the floor.

"You're insane." Noir muttered as smoke and dust rolled out of the vault and began to thin out and Yuma smiled as his faunus eyes saw through the smoke like glass.

"Maybe. But we just made a lot of money." Yuma said as the smoke finally cleared and Noir's mouth dropped. He had never seen so much money. Millions, there had to be millions upon millions of dollars. It was like something out of a movie, there were floor to ceiling shelves filled with money. Awestruck, Noir spoke to his brother, "How are things going on your end?"

"They're going. How bout you?"

"Smooth as silk, little brother." Noir said, his voice filled with awe as Yuma pulled out multiple nylon duffel bags out of his messenger bag and the two began to work. It was a blur as the two worked, gloved hands flew across shelves as they shovelled lien into their duffel bags.

"I don't think I brought enough bags!" Yuma shouted with a laugh as he tossed two full bags into the ever growing pile by the destroyed vault door.

"Then we'll take shove the rest into our pockets, Jaune isn't out there risking his freedom so we can only get away with half the cash." Noir said as he tossed two of his own bags into the pile, beginning to get tired from all the movement. Noir was always winded easily, even at Beacon when he was in his peak physical condition.

"How are you doing?" Noir asked as he took a second to breathe.

"I'm doing. How are you? You sound tired."

"There's so much lifting to do ya know?" Noir asked as he threw himself back into work, redoubling his efforts as he continued lining what little duffel bags they had left with cash.

"Better pick up the pace, this show is about to hit it's climax." Jaune muttered into his mic and Noir groaned.

"Yu! Pick up the pace!" Noir shouted as he continued bagging the money, he was almost done with his half, he just needed to get the rest of one last shelve.

"Done," Yuma called as he jogged to the pile and tossed two duffels onto the pile before rushing to the other side of the vault and he began shoving lien into Noir's last bag, "Pull the van up to the front door."

Noir growled as he sprinted out of the basement and across the main room of the bank into the streets before he slid across the van's hood and jumped into the driver's seat. Noir thew the van into reverse and quickly backed the up towards the bank doors before releasing the trunk and climbing out of the van and running back down to Yuma, "Come on! We gotta go!"

"Chill the hell out, slow is smooth and smooth is fast." Yuma said as he slung a bag under each shoulder and held a bag in each hand as he began running up the steps with Noir in tow after he copied Yuma in terms of carrying duffels. The two made multiple trips, filling both back seats of the minivan as well as the truck before the two scrambled into the van and Noir stomped onto the accelerator.

The minivan screeched as it peeled away from the bank, it's back heavily weighed down by the massive load it was now hauling. Yuma shouted with joy as they rolled down Vale's unoccupied street, streetlamps raining light onto their faces from above. Noir joined his former teammates and shouted in joy before his heart jumped to his throat and panic filled every cell of his body.

There were red and blue lights in his rearview mirror…

* * *

 **AN: Weeeeeeeee woooooo. Weeeeeeee wooooooo. It's the sound of the police.**


	8. 007: Red Hoods

**007: Red Hoods**

* * *

 **"The finst steel has to go through the hottest fire."**

 **\- Author Unknown**

* * *

 **Vale Rooftops**

"Noir!" Corbeau barked into his mic as he bolted across Vales rooftops, jumping and leaping from roof to roof with grace he'd managed to develop through study and practice.

"Little busy." Noir muttered quietly, causing Corbeau to skid to a stop and take a breath as he heard more incoherent voices talking about...cheese? Maybe?

Corbeau removed his mask and hood before tapping his earpiece, turning the volume up, before speaking quietly, "What do you mean 'busy'?"

"Bacon."

"Bacon? What about it?" Jaune asked as he pocketed his mask and ran a hand through the pale red wig atop his head, gaining no real feeling from the action.

"Pigs." Noir muttered simply.

"Cops," Jaune confirmed, standing up a bit straighter in worry as he heard a sound of affirmation from his older brother, "Do you need help?"

"No. Hideout," Noir instructed, earning a soft sigh from Jaune before he slipped his mask back on and pulled up his hood, "Stay safe."

Corbeau heard no response from his brother as he began to ran across the rooftop, his boots scuffing the concrete as he leaped between buildings and rolled onto a new one. He was heading home with a priceless diamond while his brother dealt with police, Corbeau wanted to go help his brother and Yuma...but he knew better...he'd just get in the way and would be risking capture, something Noir would chastise him for the second he was able to.

Corbeau skidded to a stop as he saw a form on a roof a few roofs ahead of him, a few small form, Corbeau internally mused to himself that it was probably just a little kid doing some stargazing. Then a thought occurred to him, they'd probably become the coolest kid in school if they met Corbeau Rouge. Because he was cool...right?

But as Corbeau drew closer he noticed an anomaly that he didn't expect, the form was clad in a red hood and cape, "Son of a bitch…"

Corbeau skidded to a stop on the gravel covered roof of the apartment building and gave the form the most charming smile he could manage in his tired and worried state, "Well hello there, Miss Rose."

The short girl however remained silent before reaching into a pocket of her black skirt and pulling out a small sheet of paper, a sheet of paper that almost forced Corbeau to chuckle as he ground his boot into the roof; he knew she wasn't just here to talk, "Yes, that's a very lovely piece of paper Miss Rose, any particular reason why you're showing it to me?"

"You know why." The small girl snapped, her pale cheeks ablaze.

"I do. But I like hearing people tell me what i've done, it feeds my ego." Corbeau said with a wolfish grin.

"You broke into my dorm room and left this on my pillow...with a rose!" The small girl squeaked, her cheeks a beacon in the cold darkness of Vale's rooftops.

"That I did," Corbeau admitted his arms spread slightly at his sides, "I also heard the strangest things while I there, a few moans and squeals, you seemed to be enjoying someone's company in a dream."

"N-no I wasn't! You're lying!" The girl shouted, reaching behind herself and unfurling her massive sniper scythe.

"Well excuse me, but in my experience, most people don't say 'H-harder' in a dream that doesn't involve someone else." Corbeau said with his unwavering grin.

The girl was a blur of red as she lurched forward, swinging her scythe in a wide arc that Corbeau almost blocked with his face before making the educated decision to dodge. Corbeau landed from his roll in a crouch as the girl changed direction, jumping and holding her scythe above her head with both hands. The mercenary's eyes widened under his mask before he smoked to the side as the scyther rifle cut into the roof like warm butter.

"Damn she's fast," Corbeau muttered to himself as he skirted across the gravel covered roof before standing and straighten his jacket, regaining his composure and smirk, "Ya know Red-"

"Haaaa!" Ruby shouted as she unleashed a combo of slashes so quick it terrified Corbeau, the mercenary was quickly coming to terms with the fact that the main reason he'd won so easily last time was that he had surprise and his weapon. Now he had neither.

Corbeau quickly began to formulate a strategy, with all three of the girls he'd won using divide and conquer. He couldn't do that here and she also happened to share a likeness in fighting style. Hit hard and hit fast so defense isn't an issue. He needed to get a few good hits in, she wouldn't be able to use her semblance as effectively then. Then speed wouldn't be an issue and she'll be forced into his pace, then he'd change paces rapidly and overtake her.

Which shill begged a question to the mercenary, how to deliver those few blows when she was faster than him? And even then, with what? His knife was useless against that scythe. He needed something, anything! His fire was for killing and killing this girl was the last thing he wanted to do. He trained with multiple weapons so this kind of thing wouldn't happen, but then again he never expected to fight a small girl with a scythe as large as a Schnee's ego.

Corbeau touched his cheek to see that Ruby had nicked him, a small smudge of blood on his gloves confirmed this. Corbeau rubbed his fingers together and smiled, "Not bad sweetheart."

Corbeau realized it was time to use more...special tactics.

"You really are a brilliant girl, Ruby." Corbeau said as he strutted forward towards the short girl, a charming smile gracing his lips.

Ruby stood with her scythe at the ready as Corbeau approached, the mercenary was taking off his gloves as he walked and Ruby suppressed a gasp as she saw his hands. Burned and scarred. The skin was discolored and pale at the same time but Corbeau still smiled as his boots shifted the gravel beneath his feet.

"Don't mind the hands, it happened before I had control of my semblance." Corbeau muttered as he stood not even five feet from Ruby and shoved his gloved into one of his coat pockets.

"What happened?" The innocent girl asked.

"House fire. Took my entire family from me. Then again," Corbeau took a step forward, "That was before I had control. It's why I do what I do."

"I'm sorry." The silver eyed girl said, her lips trembling as Corbeau took another step closer and as her scythe fell to her side.

"You have to understand. I may be a bad guy, but the people I kill...the people I steal from...are worse," Corbeau said, now directly in front of Ruby Rose; looking down at the small huntress in training, "Which is why i'm not going to hurt you."

Ruby Rose took a deep breath and began to speak before she was silenced by Corbeau's lips pressing against her's. Ruby attempted to push herself away from the mercenary but he was too strong...or maybe she didn't want to get away. Her hands grabbed handfuls of his coat as a scarred hand cupped her cheek, Ruby almost didn't notice the sound of clicking that was coming from nearby. But she put the odd sound at the back of her mind as she felt Corbeau's tongue push its way into her mouth, it felt so foreign as Corbeau's hands grabbed her waist and pulled her closer.

Ruby felt Corbeau pulled away before his lips landed just below her left earlobe and he spoke, "Sorry, Little Red."

"What are you-?" Ruby began before Corbeau softly shoved her back and she released a yelp as she landed on the gravel, butt first. Ruby looked up to see that Corbeau now held a key of some kind in between his teeth and looking down, she realized what the key was to. The handcuffs he'd managed to get on her mid-kiss.

"I usually don't break out the handcuffs until date three but you're a very special girl." Corbeau said with a small smirk, glad that he hadn't lost his touch in the realm of sleight of hand or else he'd definitely be in a predicament.

"Wha-? How? Why?" Ruby stuttered, her blush slowly fading from the rather intense kiss as she realized something. Her first kiss had been from a criminal. He'd stolen her first kiss.

"I put cuffs on you so I could escape without worrying. Lots of practice. And because I have the feeling that I can't just beat you in a fight...plus I was wondering how soft those lips of yours are, i'm pleasantly surprised to say the least." Corbeau explained after tossing the key over his shoulder where it fell between the creaks and cracks of the gravel.

Ruby stuttered through a sentence that Corbeau couldn't understand but smiles at the blush that covered every revealed inch of her ivory skin. Corbeau scoffed fondly before turning, though not before tossing a few words back towards the red hooded girl behind him, "You should lay off the cookies, they're bad for you. Wouldn't want to mess up that pretty smile."

Corbeau began walking away before hearing the huntress in training ask something he didn't expect, "Was what you said true? About your family and your hands!?"

Corbeau stopped mid-stride to turn and look back at the young girl, shoving his hands in his pockets, "So what if it is or isn't? You have no reason to believe me."

"Because under all that leather and snark and hate and...just...anger, I believe you're a good person!" Ruby shouted at the masked mercenary who was, frankly, taken aback by the girl's words. Corbeau wasn't a good person...Jaune wasn't a good person either.

The mercenary scoffed, "You can believe whatever you want, Red. My chances of ever being a 'good person' died the same night my…"

Corbeau's voice faded before he shook his head and turned, running and jumping off the roof as he descended into the dark Vale streets. Confident that no matter what, Ruby Rose would never catch him.

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

Jaune finally was able to remove his mask as he walked through the maze of shipping containers within the warehouse he called home, he could hear the quiet mumbles of Noir and Yuma deeper within the warehouse; closer to the back near Noir's apartment and Jaune's shipping container. As Jaune rounded a corner and began down a "hallway", his associates came into view….both dripping wet. Yuma had his long hair slung over his shoulder and was wringing the thick, black, mess out as Noir looked to have peeled off his shirt and jeans; standing only in baby blue boxers.

"Where the hell have you been?" Yuma asked irately as the slapping sound of water hitting the concrete floor echoed through the warehouse.

"Making out with fifteen year olds." Jaune deadpanned as he approached.

"Very funny," Yuma growled as he continued wringing out his hair, "It's gonna take weeks to get the smell out."

"Don't be so dramatic." Noir scoffed as he began hand wiping his body down.

"You don't know the struggle of having long hair, Arc!" Yuma protested.

"Then cut it!" Noir shot back, furrowing his brow at the tiger faunus.

"Don't be crazy. Long hair is my thing." Yuma defended as he began dating wringing out his black and white tiger tail.

"Yeah. Well your 'thing' smells like rotten sewage," Jaune said before a silence fell over the three criminals, Jaune looked forward the the dark red shipping container in front of them. It was barely cracked open and Jaune knew what was inside but something else was wearing on his conscience, "What on Remnant happened to you two?"

"Nothing!" The two criminals shouted in panic, both gaining desperate looks in their eyes that Jaune didn't catch as the two quickly regained their composure.

"O-kay then," Jaune said, dismissing the weirdness of his partners before turning his eyes back to the shipping container before them, "Can...can I look?"

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Noir said with a sly smile that drew Jaune's hand into his leather coat before he pulled out the Black Diamond, Noir and Yuma's eyes glazed over as they stared at the beautiful gem. Yuma carefully took the gem from Jaune's scarred hand and began examining it even closer as Noir opened the double doors of the container and Jaune's own eyes glazed over.

Mindblowing.

Mindblowing was the only words Jaune knew to describe how much money was packed into the container, a small fortune filled nearly half the container top to bottom. Jaune turned to his fellow villains, "We're rich."

"It's great to be working with proper villains again." Yuma commented as the three all began exchanging bro-hugs and fistbumps, ecstatic about what they have achieved.

"Same man," Noir said with a fond smile towards his brother and friend, "So... what should we do with the rock?"

"Sell it?" Jaune asked before Yuma simply chuckled.

"Why not have it cut into jewelry? Have it matched with some cheap gold and I think we'd make more money in the long run, plus it's less suspicious." Yuma said, earning a surprised look from Jaune and a look of pride from his former leader.

"He's right," Jaune admitted, "Gem is too hot to sell anyway so at least this way we make some money and are able to have a bit of the gem for nostalgia reasons."

"Got a jeweler in mind?" Noir asked.

"My ex-girlfriend...Amber…? Yeah, Amber." Yuma said with a nod.

"Cute butt? Curly hair?"

"Yeah...wait, did you check out my girl?"

"I was her palette cleanser."

"Enjoy the ride?"

"Immensely."

"You two disgust me." Jaune muttered.

"Says the guy who treats girls like socks." Yuma shot back.

"Wha-?"

"Use em till they're dirty and change em often." Noir said, causing Yuma to bust out laughing till he was eventually had to lean against the shipping container beside them.

"You make me sound like a man whore, despite how it may seem I do believe in 'the power of love'." Jaune said, adding air quotes to the last bit of his sentence while snorting slightly .

"The power of love is bullshit, the power of swords and violence is where it's at." Yuma said, managing to smother his laugh.

"Couldn't agree more." The Arc brothers said in unison, before briefly sharing a chuckle at their likemindedness towards violence.

…

…

...

"So what the fuck is today right?"

* * *

 **Location Unknown**

"This is a disaster!" Cinder shouted as she slammed her fist into the table she had been leaning on as Roman, Neo and, her subordinates skirted around her, all standing with their backs against the walls of her office within the safe house they were currently in. The wood around her fists had begun to blacks as embers began to flake off the desk and float through the air.

"I.. I wouldn't say 'disaster', more like… Unfortunate miscommunication." Roman said, attempting to defend his fellow criminal as well as his go-to hire when he and Neo couldn't handle something on their on.

Everyone jumped as Cinder's hand smashed through the desk, sending bits and pieces of charred wood and ember into the air, "That stupid, bloodthirsty mercenary could not wait for instructions and simply went off and did whatever he goddamn pleased to do.

[You didn't exactly tell him he'd be on standby for three weeks…] Neo glanced to the side as she sent her thoughts to everyone in the room.

"Are you defending him?" Cinder growled as she turned towards the small neapolitan haired girl who was quickly beginning to think that standing up for the mercenary who was possibly trying to get into her pants was a bad idea.

[I'm just saying that it's understandable that he got antsy...or whatever. ]

"Cinder…," Roman began cautiously as he stepped forward, arms spread, "Corbeau is a special kind of criminal, he doesn't want to be just a thief or just a killer. He wants everything and he'll become whatever and do whatever, whenever, he needs to get it."

"Sounds like greed if you ask me." Emerald chimed in.

[Good thing no one did.]

Emerald's red eyes snapped to the small girl before she took a step towards the umbrella armed girl, "You little bi-"

"Be quiet." Cinder ordered, forcing Emerald to return to her place by the wall but not forcing the girl to not glare at the now smug Neo.

"From now on we will need to keep him more informed." Cinder admitted, having visibly calmed down which in turn calmed down her subordinates

Neo quietly sighed, she personally believed that her contribution had saved the mercenary and she definitely believed that he owed her.

* * *

 **Vale: Dock 21**

Noir Arc walked down the dark and unlit "hallways' of the warehouse, he didn't need or even want the light. Noir extended a hand and drug his nails against the metal of the shipping container as he continued down the hall towards his own apartment, he could hear the sound of Yuma snoring on their couch in the makeshift living room as he passed it, he could see a bit of light drifting out of a small hole in a shipping container on the second level...it was Jaune's temporary room...Noir guessed that he left the TV on before passing out. Noir briefly wondered what Saxon was doing, it was probably already early morning over in Mistral.

Noir smiled grimly as he slid into his apartment and effortlessly padded across the main room of the apartment and into a short hallway that led to his bathroom and closet...as well as something else. Stopping half way down the hallway, Noir reached out and rubbed his hands against the supposedly cheap drywall before finding what he was looking for a hole. Noir's cobalt eyes glowed in the darkness as he activated his semblance, slipping into the shadows. Noir was suddenly against the wall, inside the shadows that blanketed his apartment. Noir zipped through the shadow and into the hole, deactivating his semblance as he appeared on the other side of the wall.

He was now standing in a small but comfy room he had personally built, no one knew about this room...not even his brother. It was his room for...himself. Noir walked forward and stepped around a plush recliner in the center of the room before falling back into it and undoing his tie a few notches. Noir reached to the small table to the side of recliner and grabbed the half empty bottle of premium scotch before pouring himself a glass.

Noir took a sip before his eyes wandered his room, the wall to his left contained nothing but newspaper clippings. Clippings about the exploits of Corbeau Rouge as well as every clipping about every crime he'd ever had some sort of involvement with, even if he just sold the perps the bullets; he kept track. The wall to the right however contained book shelves filled with his favorite knick knacks and most of his pictures from over the years. Snow globes, books, forgotten projects, Yuma's first tattoo machine, Jaune's old gas station lighter that he had carried before Noir had given their father's more expensive lighter to him, Saxon's first attempt at making a weapon which looked like a knife with an exploded blade, pictures of his brother, pictures of his friends, pictures of his exs.

Noir took another sip before turning his eyes forward, he laid his eyes on his old hunting gear that was being wore by a mannequin; a leather, hooded waist coat, black jeans and boots. Simple but effective. He looked at his old weapon that was propped up in the corner with glazed over eyes, a greatsword very similar to the one his previous teacher wielded...he'd made it trying to copy his teacher's weapon after all. Noir's eyes lazily shifted towards the two framed pictures on the wall, one of ten year old Jaune next to seventeen year old Noir with seventeen year old Saxon and Yuma directly behind the Arc brothers…they were all smiling. It was an odd thing back then to be doing that but nowadays, not so much. The other was a photo of a seventeen year old Noir leaning against a tree with his teacher leaning against the tree beside him, a flask in his hand. Qrow Branwen was like that.

Noir felt his grip on his glass grow a little tighter as he looked at the second picture, he remembered the day it was taken well. It was the day Noir learned of his family's death and the day Noir Lyon Arc, Huntsmen In Training, died. The day honor went out the window, the day a buck became more important than anything and anyone...almost anyone.

* * *

 **AN: Merry Holidays one and all! How was your holiday haul? Get what you wanted? Get some socks from that aunt who never calls? I personally did alright but i'm not so egotistical to sit here and tell you all what I got for Christmas...well, I am. I'm just too lazy and in too much pain. Arms still killing me from the wreck but it's getting better, thank you all so much for understanding and your wishes. It meant a lot. Keep it real guys.**


	9. 000: The Night Before The Fire

**000: The Night Before The Fire**

* * *

" **I was in the darkness; so darkness I became."**

 **-Unknown Author**

* * *

Noir Arc was already bored of Beacon. It wasn't his fault, or his team's fault, or even his new instructors' fault.

No.

This was the fault of his _old_ teacher, Qrow Branwen. That...that...that...crazy old man had turned him into what he was now, a Huntsmen in everything but title. Qrow Branwen had crammed seven years of training into his required three at Signal, drilling Noir till his hands bled, relentlessly pounding the history of Remnant into his head and last but certainly not least, beating down Noir any chance he got. Deciding to accept Qrow's offer of being taken on as his apprentice was both the best and worst decision of his life, he was now stronger than he had ever previously imagined but he was also accepting the fact that he was going to be unrelentingly bored till he graduated Beacon...in four years.

"Please end me." Noir groaned as he was forced to listen to a rather round professor preach about his adventures as a young man, slaying the Grimm and taming the kitty...or was it the other way around?

"Nope," His partner muttered, sounding just as bored as he did, Saxon looked at the professor with half-linden yes as he spun a pencil on the bridge of his thumb, "You die and I'm the one who's gonna have to lead this cat herd, no thanks."

"Both of you suck." Yuma muttered as he held his his head in his hands, looking to be on the verge of falling asleep.

"All of you need to shut it." A fourth voice spat, Lawton. Noir didn't know what to think about Lawton, he knew Saxon and Yuma from Signal and had become extremely close to them there but Lawton was from Vaccuo and therefore was a total wild card in his mind. He was a bit rude most of the time but he did have his moments of clarity, though most of them were during fights when he'd managed to pull one of their asses out of the fire.

"What's up your ass, Lawton?" Saxon asked, having folded his arms onto the desk and leaned on them like a pillow.

The cowboy hat wearing Vaccuoian tsked before turning away and somehow managing to focus on the "lecture". Saxon's eyes narrowed and his gray eyes turned dark before he himself turned back to the lecture. This was Noir's life, it had been his life for two month and Noir was already bored of it.

And it was all thanks to Qrow Branwen.

The lovable bastard.

* * *

Noir sighed as he pulled at the tie of his uniform, he hated the uniform inforced by the school and relished in the ability to take the damned things off and change into some joggers and a tank top or even better, his combat gear. The black haired Huntsmen in Training was personally of the belief that seventeen year olds shouldn't be forced to wear suits for eight hours a day, five days a week. They weren't civs working in some office building, they were children...who could kill creatures of evil.

Maybe they were a bit more adult than he thought.

Saxon had unbuttoned his jacket as he and the rest of the team followed Noir back to their dorm, all of them eager for some rest and relaxation after a hard week of being teenage monster killing machines. Yuma himself had undone the braid his hair had been in and let his long mane flow in the wind as they approached the dormitory while Lawton simply ran a hand through his crew cut.

"...so I wake up, there's blood _everywhere_ , I'm holding an ice pick, cops are telling me to get down. It was a weird Tuesday."

"That's one helluva dream." Lawton admitted.

"Yeah, where the hell do you get this kinda crap?" Saxon asked as Noir felt a buzz in his pocket, someone had sent him a scroll message, Noir decided to ignore the message for now and lagged back before he interjected himself into his team's conversation.

"Is it those crime novels you always read before crashing for the night?"

"Could be, think if I read smut before I fall asleep I'll have sexy dreams?" Yuma asked earning a laugh from his three teammates as the made their way towards their dorm, having already reached their floor.

"I'd say it's a worthy experiment." Saxon said jokingly.

"That's exactly why Ozpin made me team leader and not you." Noir said as he swiped his scroll of his teams lock and they piled into the room, all beginning to change into more comfortable clothes.

"Ouch. Get dunked on, kid." Yuma said with a smirk.

"Screw you. I didn't want to be leader, too much work." Saxon said before a sharp knock rang through the room and the four boys all looked at each other in confusion, none of them had gone out of their way to make friends or even introduce themselves to someone outside their team. Noir approached the door, being the most dressed of the team, and opened it; finding Glynda Goodwitch on the other side.

"Hey Miss Goodwitch, everything okay?" Noir asked nervously, teachers never came into the dormitory. _Never._

"Mr. Arc, your presence is required in the headmaster's office," Goodwitch said, arms crossed as she stood there in her no nonsense manner, "Also, is your scroll functional?"

"Y-yeah, it's working fine. Why?"

"The Headmaster often summons students via their scrolls. Please pay more attention to it next time." Goodwitch instructed before turning and beginning to walk down the hallway before abruptly skidding to a stop, "Mr. Mo."

"Yes ma'am?"

"Please put on some pants."

"I'll get on that ma'am."

* * *

Noir stood in the rapidly ascending elevator, back against the wall as he tugged at the tight leather of his black, hooded, waistcoat that made up part of his combat gear. What could be wrong? Had he done something wrong? Was it something so wrong it required Ozpin's attention? Whatever it was, Noir hoped Ozpin's would go easy on him. Did Ozpin exactly owe Nicholas Arc, Noir's father and a old friend to Ozpin, enough to get his son off for whatever it was that required the Headmaster's attention? Who knows.

A light ding filled the air as the elevator reached it's destination and Noir pushed himself off the elevator wall, preparing for punishment for whatever he had done. But as Noir entered the Headmaster's chamber an overall feeling of confusion set in, Ozpn was behind his desk with Goodwitch at his side, Qrow Branwen was leaning back against the glass of the large window that covered the back wall of Ozpin's office with dark eyes and a sorrowful expression. But what screamed "Something is very wrong" to Noir was the short woman in a pantsuit standing off to the side with a familiar mop of blonde hair hiding behind her.

"Jaune?" The mop straighten and suddenly the ten year old darted out from behind the woman, tears in his sapphire eyes as he lunged at Noir desperately clinging to his older brother. Noir looked down to see his brother for the first time in months to see that both of the small boy's arms were wrapped tightly in pure, white, bandages.

"Noir!" The small boy said between bouts of wails and cries before his brother stooped down and held him, watching as Ozpin stood from his desk and walked around to stand in front of the kneeling Huntsmen In Training.

"Noir Lyon Arc, it is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that at nine oh two last night, Nicholas, Juniper, Blanc, Violet, Marron, Roux, Amber, Sky, Rose Arc and Jaune were trapped in a house fire. Your brother was the sole survivor. We believe it was foul play but we've yet to find evidence of such. I am truly sorry."

* * *

"What do you mean he can't stay with you?!" Saxon looked up from his spot on the floor of their dorm where he was playing with Noir's little brother, showing how he could use his semblance to make an RC car move. Noir was currently in the hallway talking- eh… _having words_ with Qrow about arrangements for his brother; after Noir partially recovered from a colossal breakdown, he'd been informed by Ozpin that a Jaune couldn't stay at Beacon. Saxon only barely managed to get something about how "Ozpin said a ten year old can't be wandering around as school for warriors" before the team leader slipped into a fit of crying and swearing.

"Sorry, kid. I'm about to leave on a mission and I can't exactly just leave him alone for God knows how long."

"What am I supposed to do!? I won't throw him in the foster system, it'll kill him. Please! Fucking help me Qrow." Saxon heard Noir beg.

"I'm sorry."

 _Tap..._

 _Tap..._

 _Tap..._

 _Tap..._

 _Tap…_

"Bastards...heartless bastards…" Saxon heard before Noir burst into the room, tears in his cobalt eyes as he pulled a duffel bag out from under his bed and began shoving anything that belonged to him inside.

Saxon sighed as he lifted himself up, his gray eyes flashing a dark blue for a split second...he really needed to get a hold on that, "Noir, what are you doing?"

"Taking my brother and leaving." Noir muttered as he shoved and handful of clothes and a paperback he knew Jaune would like into his bag.

"And where exactly are you going to go? What are you going to do for money?" Saxon asked, a hand on his hip as Noir shouldered his duffel bag and the bag he'd been give by the social worker who'd been watching over Jaune; she'd apparently been nice enough to buy Jaune some clothes.

"I don't know, but I'm not gonna stay in a place that refuses to help me _or_ my brother." Noir spat before Jaune rose and began to follow his brother out.

"So you're just gonna throw away your future?" Yuma asked as his tiger tail trashed frantically.

"Nah," Noir muttered, a look of sadness and anger passing of his face before he turned to his friend, "Just embracing a new one."

The dorm was silent for a few moments, the only sound being Jaune's occasional sniffle which told Noir that he'd caught a cold of some kind, but the silence was effectively broken when Saxon stooped down and pulled a backpack out from under the his bed and slung it over his shoulder, "Fine. Let's go."

"What the fuck do you mean 'let's go'?"

"You might wanna cool it with the language." Yuma suggested quietly, he himself looking deep in thought, his face twisted up and relaxed all at once.

Lawton grimaced as he stood up from his bed, "Yeah what the fuck do you mean 'let's go'? You're not going anywhere."

Saxon tuned and stepped forward as Noir covered Jaune's eyes and ears, he definitely didn't need to hear or see what was about to happen, "Who's gonna stop me?"

"Beacon doesn't allow teams less than three. So you leaving, fucks me and Yuma."

The corner of Saxon lip pulled back in a sneer as his eyes shifted to a dark blue, "I say again, who's gonna stop me? Because it definitely isn't gonna be your punk ass-"

"Guys. Language."

Lawton clearly wasn't a fist fighter, his form was atrocious at best and he telegraphed his first punch to Saxon; choosing to throw a wide haymaker that even Jaune could have predicted. Unfortunately for Lawton, Saxon was a fist fighter. Saxon blocked the haymaker with his left forearm, delivering a vicious undercut to the shorter boy before slamming his left hand into Lawton's chest, sending electricity surging through his body; it was almost enough to kill him. _Almost._

Lawton collapsed into a twitching heap and the smell of ozone filled to room as electrify sparked between Saxon's limbs and fingers. His eyes shined a cobalt even darker than Noir and Jaune's before he rubbed his eyes with a groan, "I hate when they do that."

"I think you're going to jail." Yuma muttered.

"Totally worth it. Guy is a prick," Saxon said before kicking the unconscious body lightly, "Lucky I didn't fry his ass."

"You sure you didn't kill him?" Noir asked as he continued to attempt to protect his little brother from the possibly fresh corpse.

"...No…"

"Of course you aren't." Noir muttered as shuffling was heard from Yuma's side of the room and Noir looked to see that Yuma had begun shoving things into a backpack of his own.

"What are you doing, Yu?"

"Well, seeing as how I just witnessed a possible third degree murder-"

"Possible second degree murder," Saxon corrected, "I've wanted to gank Lawton since I met him."

"-possible _second_ degree murder. I think it's a good idea to make tracks and hell, why not do with my best friends?"

Noir sniffled, rubbing his teary eyes with his coat sleeve before smiling at his friends, he'd thought he lost everything today; leave it to Saxon and Yuma to prove him wrong, "Thanks guys."

"No big thing," Saxon dismissed with a wave and a smile, "Beacon wouldn't be the same without you...can we leave? It's starting to smell like burnt asshole in here."

Noir suppressed a laugh as he felt small hands wrap around the hands that were covering Jaune's eyes and ears, "Noir? Can I look yet?"

Noir motioned to the door and Saxon quickly stepped around the Arc brothers to open the door. Saxon was fairly sure that Noir didn't want his little brother seeing a _possibly_ dead body so he watched. Noir led his little brother out and was soon followed by his dark haired companions.

The lock to what was no longer their room snapped shut as Saxon closed the door. This was it. They were on their own now.

* * *

"This fucking sucks!" Saxon shouted as he pushed a wheelbarrow full of shredded bark down the long walkway that went down the very center of the garden that happened to belong to the politician they were now working for, tending to his expansive grounds and maintaining his large mansion.

"You can say that again." Yuma muttered around the box cutter in his mouth as he walked with a bag of bark over each shoulder.

They had been on their own for six months, roaming from settlement to settlement in an attempt to find a stable place to stay for an extended period of time. They'd finally managed to get established in a rather large settlement just outside of the City of Vale called Lian Yu and had found jobs at the politicians mansion. Noir was working a cook, putting his nature skills to the test while Saxon and Yuma were forced to do the brunt work.

"We're trained badasses! We shouldn't have to put some rich jerkoff's garden together for him." Saxon bristled as he let the back legs of the wheelbarrow hit the ground and grabbed the small shovel he'd brought before beginning to haul and smooth out the layer of bark on top of loose dirt.

Yuma simply nodded as he tossed the two bags onto the dirt before grabbing the box cutter from his mouth and extending the blade with two sharp clicks; quickly slashing the bags open with practiced grace he'd gained from the past week of nothing but laying bark with Saxon and on occasion Noir, if things weren't busy in the kitchen.

Yuma knew that Saxon detested this kind of work, while the monochrome haired boy came from a poor family he was never poor enough to need to get a job at a young age. Yuma however, had work experience as both a gardener and dishwasher from his time back in Atlas. Two things that helped the three of them get their current jobs.

"Stop whining you baby," Yuma playfully spat as he grabbed his own shovel from the wheelbarrow and began spreading out the bark, "We're lucky to have this job seeing as how between the three of us, there's practically no work experience."

"Well...what do you expect," Saxon asked solemnly, a rarity in of itself, before planting his shovel into the ground and leaning against it, "We were all so busy training that a normal job just wasn't in the equation. Hell, for me, my own family wasn't in the equation."

"Same. At one point, I went a whole week without speaking to my father," Yuma said as he confined his work, "Eat. Train. Sleep. Repeat."

"You think that's bad? One time I was so into a training regimen that I forgot my sister's birthday."

"That's pretty bad but not unforgivable." Yuma admitted through a light laugh.

"Yuma," Saxon said, leaning towards his friend, "She's my _twin_ sister."

Yuma howled with laughter, his tail bouncing in every direction imaginable as he attempted to control himself; only managing to smother his laugh into closed mouth giggle. Saxon however, took the laughing in stride. He was used to it, he knew he'd done some dumb things in lifetime and wasn't afraid to admit it, especially when he knew it would partially cheer up the friend who he knew hated this job just as he did.

It was degrading, not because of the manner of the job in any way, but because he knew that their boss would look down on them from his bedroom and smile. He knew the bastard was a racist and only hired them to attempt to break Yuma. But that frankly just wasn't possible as far as Saxon was concerned but it did concern him that Yuma had the tendency to look at the world through rose colored glasses, ignoring and blocking out all the problems they had experienced.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Saxon heard before looking over his shoulder to see Noir jogging up the cobblestone path towards them, wearing a white chef's coat and black sunglasses; a necessary evil seeing as how Noir had sensitive eyes as an aftereffect of his shadow based semblance.

"Oh you know...bark." Saxon muttered before continuing his work.

"No shit," Noir asked with a smirk before standing between his two friends, "Need help?"

"We should be okay, we'll probably finish today if that _bastard_ doesn't make us redo it... _again_." Saxon spat.

"If it makes you feel better, I spit in his food."

"Rule one of the service industry: don't fuck with the people who handle your food." Yuma muttered, not looking up from his tedious task.

"Who the fuck needs a garden this big anyway?" Saxon growled, his arms shaking as he suddenly gestured around the massive garden. It was almost stereotypical in a way, cobblestone pathways, a hedge maze, paths of roses along with every other kind of flower imaginable.

"Who the fuck needs any of this crap," Saxon shouted before pointing towards the mansion, "That dickless politician doesn't deserve any of this shit!"

"Inside voice, Saxon." Yuma teased.

"We're outside! I'm venting! And you know I'm right!"

Both dark haired teens nodded somberly, knowing that their monochromatic friend was correct. He usually was when it came to things such as this, he got people more than both Yuma and Noir. He was... _sociable_ and a fast talker. Noir on one hand could barely get through a lie without laughing and Yuma would much rather hole up in a dark room with a computer than have person-to-person contact.

Both teens were staring at the ground when suddenly, an idea struck Noir like lightning. Quick, unexpectedly and without mercy.

"Then why don't we take it?"

Saxon stopped his rant and looked towards his former leader who was quickly joined by Yuma, who looked extremely confused at the question, "Take... _what_?"

" _His_ shit," Noir stated simply, "Why don't we take it?"

"It's illegal."

"I'm too pretty for prison."

Noir glared at Saxon for his joking response before pointing to him, " _You_ said it yourself, he doesn't deserve any of this. So why not take a bit of it for ourselves?"

"Let me reiterate, I'm too pretty for prison." Saxon said, this time with a straighter face.

"What Sax is trying to say is, it's illegal and we'll get caught." Yuma reasoned.

"Saxon can short out the security system. I can steal the loot using my Shadow Travel. And you can use your senses to be our lookout. We were born for this." Noir said, forcibly bringing his friends into a huddle.

"I'm uncomfortable with how easily you turned our gifts we swore to use to protect the innocent to skills we can use to roll mansions." Yuma admitted with a shrug.

"Why stop at mansions? Museums and high rise penthouses are just as vulnerable." Noir suggested with a sly grin that brought a sigh from the reaches of Saxon.

"Fine. Let's steal some shit."

"Wow, here I thought you were straight as an arrow." Yuma almost spat, breaking Noir's makeshift huddle.

"I'd rather have food in my stomach and clothes on a little boy's back than morals, Yuma." Saxon growled, causing Yuma to immediately relax. The faunus only just realizing why Noir would suggest such a thing and why Saxon was so willing to go along with it. They weren't just looking out for themselves. They were looking out for Jaune.

Yuma swallowed audibly before running a hand through his long hair, "Alright. Let's do this."

* * *

It went off without a hitch. They came, they saw, they conquered. It had went exactly according to plan. They had broken in and made off with a plentiful bounty and they had done it completely scot free. Or so they thought.

The three boys would soon learn that committing the crime wasn't the hard part, it's getting away with it. You can never know how an investigation will go, what evidence you may have left behind. After the night of their first crime they learned to sleep with one eye open.

But before that lesson, they learned something very important. Cops aren't stupid. This lesson began when Noir was woken up by a loud knocking on the door of their small two bedroom apartment. Dragging himself from the couch that he'd chosen to sleep on as well as just barely seeing the digital clock out of the corner that told him it was only half past two, Noir made it way to the door and tiredly looked through the peephole before his blood ran cold.

"Noir, who's at the door?" Noir spun to see that Jaune had gotten out of bed and was now standing in the living room, right next row the duffel bag full of stolen jewels, jewelry, and other expensive luxuries.

"Jaune. Hide that bag." Noir said in a low mutter as he pointed to the loot bag, turning back to the door and seeing his baby brother haul the bag down the hallway out of the corner of his eye before he opened the door.

The officer was pretty cute if Noir had to say so himself. She was rather petite and young but managed to fill the drab blue uniform rather nicely, opening the door just enough to reveal his head he smiled, "Hello Officer...Smoak. How can I help you this... _late_ evening."

"Hello. Noir Arc, I presume," the officer asked before receiving a nod that was mixed with a tired yawn, "I bring the unfortunate news that there has been a break in at your employers home."

"That's awful," Noir said, trying with every best of his being to keep the sarcasm from his voice as well as begging himself not to crack, "Was anything stolen? Was anyone hurt?"

"No one was hurt but plenty was taken," The woman said as she pulled out her scroll and tapped on it a few times, "Including...thirteen watches, eight rings, five bracelets, nine necklaces, a jewel encrusted di...sexual apparatus and a holotape set containing the entire series of _Neko Neko Paradise_."

"I didn't know my boss was into catgirls…" Noir muttered as he strokes his chin, looking rather solemn while also questioning when he'd grabbed such a thing.

"Beside the point, where and what were you doing around midnight?"

"Midnight," Noir asked, opening the door a bit more so that the woman could see his entire body. Noir would freely admit that he was in fact using his toned and currently shirtless body to distract and disorient the officer in front of him. Women used their breasts to get out of tickets, why couldn't he use his abs to get away with breaking and entering and theft, "I was here with some friends, we were all winding down after work with a game of poker."

"Poker? Well could I have the names and addresses of these friends, so I can confirm your story of course."

"Of course, but they're actually here with me. We all live together you see, I fact, I believe you may have to interview them soon anyway. Saxon Armonia and Yuma Mò?" Noir asked, no point in hiding them. They were on the lease of their apartment and Noir figured they were going to be interviewed anyway, might as well get it out of the way so they can sleep easier.

"Y-yes. I do actually." A blush had spread across her cheeks and Noir caught her onyx eyes glancing at his shirtless form.

"Well come on in." Noir said, standing back and opening the door for the officer to come inside their small apartment where Saxon and Yuma shared a room and Jaune got a room to himself, while Noir had decided to do the noble thing and sleep on a couch the found at the curb, "I'll go wake them up, don't want to wake up my brother.

Noir walked down the short hallway and entered Saxon's and Yuma's room to find the boys already up and rubbing the of their eyes. Saxon yawned as he spoke, "Jaune told us what's up."

"Then let's get this done. Our alibi is poker here, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah; I remember. Come on let's get this shit done so we can freaking sleep and _not_ get locked up in the clink."

"Agreed." Yuma muttered as he stood and entered the living room with Noir and Saxon behind him.

The interview went rather quickly and absolutely perfect in the eyes of the three dark haired thieves, they'd practiced their lie till the could tell it with surgical precision and just as they thought they'd done perfect; they felt a jolt of terror as the officer reached out behind her from her position behind the couch and produced a black duffel bag. The duffel bag that'd _previously_ held the loot.

"Why exactly was this laying on the floor in the living room?"

"What? You never heard of teenagers being messy? We all work full time, cleaning is kinda tough for us." Noir said dismissively, internally sweating and wondering why Jaune had brought the bag back into the living room and _where_ the loot was.

"Ah. Well, you three have a nice night. I'll be in touch if your situation changes." The officer said before stowing her pad and leaving with a goodbye that was reciprocated by the thieves.

The single sigh of relief was released by the three boys as their door shut and Noir found himself running his hands through his hair with a exasperated groan, "Thank God that's over."

"Think she bought it?" Yuma asked as he pulled the hair tie that he'd put in for their company out of his hair.

"We gotta hope so." Noir muttered as he heard small shuffling steps behind him to see that Jaune had into the living room, now holding his X-Ray and Vav backpack that Noir had bought for him.

"What's up kiddo?" Noir asked as he kneeled down and ruffled the wheat colored mess utop Jaune's head.

"I thought I should switch the bags…" Jaune muttered as he heaved the bag up to Noir, who took it and realized it's contents at the unexpected weight.

"Nice job, kid." Saxon complimented as he held a closed fist down to Jaune who bumped his fist into Saxon's as Noir unzipped the backpack and sighed as the fruits of their labor came into view.

"What do we do now?" Yuma asked, a question that had been on everyone's minds; especially Noir's.

"We get out of town...then we keep stealing." Noir said, they had no other choice at this point. This loot would support them for the moment but for an extended period of time...no way.

…

…

"Okay then. Where are we heading?" Yuma asked, another question that had been plaguing the mind of Noir Arc.

"...Vale. It's practically a few steps from Vaccuo when it comes to the criminal underworld. If we're gonna aim, we might as well aim big." Saxon offered.

"... Vale it is."

* * *

 **AN: The quote in the beginning of the chapter really works for Noir in my opinion. Oh hey there, kinda long time no see. Why has it taken me a month to get out one chapter? A long list of things. Semester ending, Fallout 4, (currently doing a modded Minutemen playthrough) dealing with my anxiety and ADHD. (if it wasn't for those two little untreated problems i'd seriously have a chapter out every week) My arm is a 100 percent now and I managed to get the scratch together to buy a "new" car. So about this chapter, I wanted to tell the small story of Noir and I didn't want to do a twelve paragraph infodump in a normal chapter so I did this instead. I thought some people might want to learn a bit more about Noir as well as a extra little bit about the other two in Jaune's merry band of criminals.**


	10. 008: Kindling

009: Kindling

* * *

"People who fight fire with fight usually end up with ashes."

-Abigail Van Buren

* * *

 **Downtown Vale**

Jaune personally believed that he had a great ass. This belief wasn't unwarranted however, multiple sexual partners had commented it. Including Militia, who was currently the reason he was walking out of a corner store with a bag that held a package of tampons and a pint of chocolate ice cream; She may be his main squeeze at the moment but she was also his friend so like a good friend, he had begrudgingly agreed to buy her the necessities for that time of the month.

But to say the least, Jaune was still rather surprised when he felt someone slap his ass as he walked down the street…

"Hey, what the fuck," Jaune screamed as he spun around before meeting the eyes of the snapper then sighing, "Oh…"

Neo smirked at him as she waved. [Nothing much. Just playing with my toy.]

"Yeah well, during playtime, keep your hands above the belt." Jaune instructed with a sneer before taking a sip of his coffee and continuing on his way. All that flirting he'd done with Neo as Corbeau was simply a charade, him upholding an image as a criminal and nothing more; in reality he couldn't care less about the type of girl Neo was. The type that used and abused their partners, he preferred more seemingly innocent girls. Seemingly.

[Why do you always act like that around me?] Neo followed behind Jaune as the blonde rudely turned his back on her.

"Like what?" Jaune asked exasperatedly as he and the small devil beside him were forced to stop at a crosswalk.

[Like you just scrapped me off the bottom of your shoe or something.]

"That's because I don't like you!" Jaune exclaimed as he hurried across the crosswalk, the short demon hot on his tail.

[Why?]

"Because you fucking beat me," Jaune spat, not even caring if he looked odd talking to a girl who wasn't even technically speaking back to him, "And order me around and are just a terrible person in general!"

[Oh and you're not?] A smug smirk graced Neo's thin lips.

"I have limits. At least I don't whack people in their sleep or rob stores at gunpoint like some people." Jaune whisper shouted as the shorter girl chased after him down the crowded sidewalk.

[Oh no, of course not. You just help sell the guns and bullets that make the whacking and robbing possible.]

"That's like giving a hammer credit for building a house." Jaune said dismissively as he was forced to stop at another crosswalk, internally cursing the bed afternoon traffic.

[Calling yourself a tool? Jaune Arc, I never knew you thought of yourself in such a way.] She leaned against Jaune as they stood as the cross walk and Jaune had to resist every urge to fry her on the spot. He detested Neo's presence more than most things and her current line of questioning wasn't exactly getting her off his shit list.

"I want to choke you."

[Sorry, but I draw the line at hair pulling.]

Jaune attempted to suppress the deep blush that arose on his cheeks as saw the smug smile on her lips. She was teasing him, trying to make him feel uncomfortable. It wouldn't work. He had killed hardened criminals, politicians and businessmen with a unmatched level of efficiency and some girl wasn't going to make him crack. Granted, this girl had more talent in a fight than all of his previous targets combined; sparing Adam Taurus. As well as, a much more supple body than all of them and was well aware of it.

"Could you please just go… kick a puppy or something. Or whatever it is you do in your spare time. I have to go visit a friend."

[A friend?] Her smugness had disappeared and was replaced with...confusion? Wonder? Jaune didn't know but he continued with as much bite as he could manage.

"Yeah. A friend. Ya know, a person who I actually like and enjoy being around."

[Who's this friend of yours?]

Jaune snorted as he stepped off the sidewalk, "As if i'd tell you. Now leave me alone, it's my day off and i'm not gonna spend it entertaining a criminal."

[You say that as if you aren't a criminal.]

"I'm not." Jaune lied, even if he wasn't the one who kept the books on Noir's black market dealings he would be lying, even if he wasn't even if he wasn't Corbeau Rouge he'd be lying. No matter what, Jaune Arc would be a criminal.

[Whatever helps you sleep at night, man slave.]

Jaune bit his lip as he walked faster, he could feel the wrappings tighten around his hands and arms; immediately trying to suppress the heat that had began to rise from them and in an attempt to calm down, Jaune forced himself to take a deep breath.

Jaune could hear his anger taking form of a voice, whispering in his ear.

 _Kill her. She's alone and unarmed, you have your knife and ankle knives. It would be so easy and so beneficial to everyone in, well, the whole world. Hell, you'd probably get a damn metal and a pat on the back._

Jaune wadded through the crowds with a new mission, get away from the short bitch. Jaune rounded a corner to see that she wasn't following him, just standing on that sidewalk with a smirk; as if she knew an inside joke Jaune wasn't in on. Jaune could help but note that this was probably why he constantly wore a smirk as Corbeau Rouge. It was agitating as all hell.

* * *

After dropping off the package to a then very relieved Militia, Jaune found himself wandering. It was a habit he'd never seemed to be able to drop, he enjoyed wandering around the expansive city of Vale and seeing all it had to offer. He'd managed to find some of the weirdest and coolest unknown spots in Vale because of this. It also lead to him having a guy for practically anything.

He had met his suit guy when he was buying Noir a new suit for his birthday, he'd met his coffee guy when their machine in the warehouse broke and Noir wouldn't stop complaining about how it would take two weeks to get there by mail, he'd met his castle guy when he was planning to break into Fort Castle to steal a sword from their display and wanted to know how hard it would be to break through fourteen feet of concrete.

Needless to say, it was very difficult.

Jaune was currently wandering around downtown when his scroll buzzed in his pocket and after quickly checking it, he quickly changed course toward a bit busier part of the downtown area and was soon standing in front of a very old school diner. Jaune entered with a smile and was greeted by the waitress by name, he was a regular after all. As he walked towards his normal booth, he saw two men sitting across from each other comparing handguns, he also saw five men in all black sitting in a booth and openly discussing a diamond heist.

This was The Ends of The World. And it was a home away from home for any criminal. Jaune sat in his booth and leaned back while cracking his neck as a man in a gray suit and sunglasses walked up, "Hey, Arc."

"Rain, what can I do ya for?" Jaune asked as he lounged back in the booth, waiting for Nikki the waitress to come take his order.

"I was actually wondering if you had any .45-70 Dust rounds in-stock." Rain asked as he took of his sunglasses, revealing dark eyes.

"Yep, got em in yesterday. We thought you'd need em soon."

"You two are lifesavers."

"Pretty sure that's not what those bullets are gonna be used for."

"Details," Rain said dismissively, "So when can I come and get them?"

"I can pencil you in at two tomorrow." Jaune said as the waitress arrived but, per diner rules, waited till the conversation was over before taking orders.

"Sounds good. Thanks, Arc." The man said before exiting the diner and Nikki stepped forward, notepad in hand as she gave Jaune a bright smile.

"Hey, Jaune. Want your usual?" The beautiful girl asked.

"Yeah, Noir's too. He should be here in a couple minutes."

The girl's smile smile shifted slightly before she sighed softly and scribbled on the pad, "Oh boy, wonder if he's gonna try to get into my pants again."

The sarcasm wasn't lost to Jaune as he leaned forward onto the table and smiled at Nikki, "You should give Noir a chance, unlike most of the guys in this joint who hit on you, he's a solid guy."

"Fuck you, Arc!" Someone in the dinner who heard him protested

"I know you would!" Jaune shouted back, earning a light laugh from everyone in the dinner before things returned to normal.

"You know my rule, I don't date criminals." Nikki said, he smile unwavering as she continued to scribble on the pad.

"He's not really a criminal, Nikki. He's...a salesman." Jaune said with a almost pleading smile, while also finding the irony that he, the younger brother, we playing wingman for his older brother.

"Everyone allowed in this diner knows what you two sell, even if you are strict with who you sell too." Nikki narrowed her eyes almost playfully.

"Come on, Nik. He'll make it worth your while."

Nikki chuckled as she stuffed her pad and pen back into her apron before beginning to strut away, "I'll think about it."

Jaune couldn't help but watch as she walked away, while also admitting that Noir had good taste in women. Jaune leaned back in his booth, letting the sounds of chatter fill his ears as well as the radio.

"This motherfucker made a number one album. Made a mixtape after. And then he's making another concept album. Like his first shit didn't already go Number 1?! This motherfucker's on a role! This motherfucker's like butter, he's on a roll motherfucker! And it's peace, love and positivity. He's the only rap concert you can go to and not get shot in the face. Like this motherfucker actually loves his fans, you name it: Streams, Vlogs, Q&A's. This motherfucker does it all! You name it, he does it! The fuck? WHAT FUCKING RAPPER DOES THAT?!"

"The fuck is he talking about?"

Jaune opened his eyes to see that Noir was now sitting across from him in the booth, having slipped into the dinner while Jaune was focused on the radio, "No clue."

Noir scooted into the booth and set his blue titled sunglasses down on the table that matched his impeccably tailored navy suit as he smiled almost tiredly, "What's up kiddo, you look tired."

"Try frustrated. Neo ran into me while I was on an errand this morning and processed to fuck up my morning." Jaune admitted with a sigh as he propped his head on his hand.

"Wanna know what will make my wittle brother right as rain again?"

"As long as you never call me your 'wittle brother' ever again."

"Waffles." Noir exclaimed before leaning back in his booth, "Hey beautiful! Can we get our usuals?"

"I already ordered." Jaune deadpanned as Nikki walked toward them, hips swaying in a way that possible hypnotized Jaune's older brother, as she carried a tray with her.

"You're lucky I like you, Noir. Or else McManus would have your head." Nikki said with a sultry smirk as placed the food in front of the brothers. Jaune's waffles and bacon looked as good as ever while Noir's eggs, bagel and, hash was ignored as the older Arc continued to attempt to chat up the waitress.

"Saying you like me huh? Enough to let me take you to dinner?" Noir asked as Jaune began eating his plate of waffles.

"Not on your life, Arc." Nikki said with a teasing smile before she walked away, leaving Noir to stew in his juices.

"How the fuck does Saxon do it? He walks up to any girl, says two fucking words, and their panties hit the damn floor. Meanwhile I can't even get a date with one." Noir groaned as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Nikki has this thing called standards."

"You saying I'm not good enough for her?"

"Don't put words in my mouth, Noir."

"Whatever." Noir mumbled as he impaled on half of his bagel and began eating it off the end of his fork.

The two brothers shared a comfortable silence as they ate, the clinking and clacking of forks and knives as well as the conversations around them filling their ear. By the end of their meals, they were just sitting and drinking coffee so horrible that the only way to drink it was with an obscene amount of cream. Jaune quietly fiddled with his wrappings on his left hand before Noi lightly smacked Jaune's hand away from the wrapping, "Don't mess with them. Those things are expensive, even for us."

"Yes, Mom." Jaune muttered sarcastically, earning a chuckle from Noir.

"Mom woulda put the fear of God in you, I'm soft compared to her."

…

…

"What were they like?"

Noir's hand stuttered as he stirred his coffee and he spoke somberly, "Who?"

Jaune had the feeling that Noir knew exactly who he was asking about but was attempting to create an out, Jaune wasn't going to take it, " Mom and Dad and the girls."

"Don't you remember?" Noir asked, averting his eyes from Jaune's own.

"I was ten, I remember bits and pieces but…"

Noir's spoon was tossed aside before he took a sip of his coffee, "I don't know if you remember this or not, but Blanc was my twin sister and she was always a bit more of a passive, nerdy type than me; probably why she didn't make it beyond Signal. She was staying at home, trying to decide what to do and a few days before the accident she called me and said she decided to go into weapon engineering. She was so excited, Jaune, I'd never heard her sound so happy and sure of herself. She was going to leave for some mech school in Atlas but..the fire happened.

"Then you have Vi, little miss perfect. In Mom and Dad's eyes, she could do no wrong. Smart, popular, beautiful, it was..frustrating. I had busted my ass to become everything I was and she was so much more...and did it all so effortlessly. But...one holiday while I was at home and not at Signal, the weirdest thing happened. She knocked on my door. And next thing I know, my little sister is burying her face in my chest and just crying. And I mean, crying crying. She was having the breakdown of all breakdowns, she was running into walls she had never experienced before as she got into school. She was terrified that her grades were slipping, terrified that her boyfriend broke up with her, terrified that she was having such a hard time with life. She was just a person who was trying her best, but had never been pushed beyond that point of no return. That point where you realize what you're doing something wrong and you need to get it together. So I helped her, as her big brother.

"Marron was the normalest of normal girls, she was at that point that most teens reach when they're not sure where to take their life's. She saw so many potential roads before her but didn't know which to pick, knowing that picking the wrong one wouldn't be an easily forgiven mistake. She was just your normal, snarky fourteen year old.

"Roux was...odd. I didn't actually know her that well now that I think about it. She was a bit of a loner but I heard from Blanc that she had some rebellious tendencies.

"Amber was your twin sister and acted a lot like you did, innocent and kind to everyone. You two were always at each others hip, then again, me and Blanc were the same way.

"Sky was the little kid at seven and she was a typical sweetheart, clueless about the word and all it's dangers.

"And then you have Rose, and I can't exactly tell you much about her seeing as how she was only six months old." Noir ended, his coffee cup now empty as he took a break from talking.

"Do you miss them?" Jaune asked, somberly swirling the light brown liquid in his cut around and around.

"Every day, Jaune. And at the same time I thank the Gods that I managed to keep my brother."

"What about Mom and Dad?"

"Dad was a hero, he slayed Grimm with a flick of the wrist and was under the oppressive rule of Juniper Arc along with the rest of us. He ate the same cookies as up, he ate the same waffles that had the chocolate chip smiley face with us, he hugged us all close on stormy nights when we lived in that older house and we're terrified that the roof would be torn off. Nicolas Arc wasn't the perfect father, but he tried to be with every fiber of his being.

"And Mom? Well, she was...amazing. A grade A certified badass who also made some killer cookies to boot. She was… a force of nature, everyone either stopped and stared or ran for their lives. That's just how she was was...she was also wicked short, but that's more of a personal add on than anything else." Noir ended with a small smile.

Jaune was silent for a moment, having abandoned his coffee and simply stared at the cream tabletop of the booth, "Noir. I'm so sorry."

"I know, Jaune."

"Woah, what's up with you two," Nikki having asked after she'd strutted over to the brothers, check in hand, "You two are lookin pretty glum."

"Just talking about the tragedy that is my game." Noir muttered, earning a giggle from Nikki.

"Not nearly as bad as you think it is lover boy." Nikki said as she set the check in front of Noir and bounced away with her usual spunk.

Noir watched her questioningly as she floated from table to table before he began opening up the leather book that held the check, "Weird. Thought we had...a tab…oh."

"What's up?" Jaune asked, temporarily broken out of his stupor by what may have been a development in the dance that we Noir and Nikki's not love life.

Noir spun the black book and showed off the single sheet of paper inside with a scroll number and work hours written across it, "Looks like I finally broke through that cold exterior."

Jaune rolled his eyes at his older brother's cocky smirk, "Yeah, because Nikki and 'cold' go together real well."

"You saying something little brother?"

"Me? No," Jaune said dismissively as he sipped his coffee, "I'm just hoping to get some tips in relationships from my big brother is all."

"Well, Jauney," Noir said, swinging a leg up and letting it lay across his bench as he scooted back and pressed his back against the diner wall, "It's just like Dad used to say, 'Women love confidence'."

"I mean hey, if it helped Dad land a badass like Mom, then it must get results." Jaune muttered with humor in his voice.

Noir began laughing before a soft buzzing sounded from the inner pocket of his jacket. After checking his scroll, Noir stood up and straightened the finely tailored coat before turning to his brother, "I gotta bounce kid, I apparently have a meeting."

"Thought it was our day off."

"There ain't no rest for the wicked, Jaune. And the wicked need someone to get their shit from." Noir said with a clear smirk as he began walking backwards towards the door.

"Alright. Don't get shot." Jaune shot back with a small smirk of his own.

Jaune leaned back in his seat as the ringing sound of the door being opened and closed filled the chaotic air of The Ends of The World, the clinking of forks and knives and the sound of the criminal element of Vale at it's purest and most unrelenting form was music to his ears.

But his other scroll buzzing ended his small dream and forced him to straighten and pull out the pitch black scroll, his work scroll as it were.

Midnight. Penthouse Suite of the Citadel. Come alone.

Jaune chuckled as he stowed his scroll, Roman wasn't one to be so curt so that meant he was still on Cinder's leash and that she was probably the one to call the meeting and if she was there that would mean the meeting would involve her, her side bitches, Roman and probably Neo…

Fucking Neo…

* * *

 **Penthouse Suite of the Citadel Hotel**

"I am so bored." Mercury droned, his fingers thumping the side of his head as he stared at the small skyline of Vale through the floor to ceiling windows of the Citadel's penthouse suite, the hotel room was swathed in red and gold and had all the basic necessities and creature comforts anyone could ever need, "Who does this asshole think he is?"

"He's the one who kicked your ass." Emerald spat impatiently.

"He knocked you out moron." Mercury shot back in his snarky, monotone voice.

"He snuck up on me!" Emerald shot, taking a step away from her spot next to the lavish couch towards Mercury's spot at the table.

"He snuck up on us all because you suck at making illusions." Mercury's snarky yet barbed voice cutting through Emerald like a knife.

"You son of a bit-" Emerald began reaching for her holstered weapon before a curt voice cut through their argument.

"Enough!" Cinder barked as her amber eyes bore into her subordinates.

"Why you keep them around boggles the mind, Cinder. It really does." Roman said coolly as he sat in high backed chair in the room's corner, a glass of whiskey in one hand and a lit cigar in the other.

"Be quiet, Roman. Our guest will be here any minute." Cinder said, instantaneously regaining her composure.

"It's one in the morning, I doubt he's coming." Mercury said boredly, head propped up on his hand.

"He'll be here." Cinder said once again, fire dancing in her amber eyes; oh how she hated that he had a power similar to her's, both Mercury and Emerald had been forced to listen to her rant for hours about his brazen carelessness with such a powerful semblance.

[Maybe. Maybe not. He's always marched to the beat of his own damn drum.] Neo projected to everyone who was within earshot, just in case he was watching or listening somehow.

"I'm more of a guitar type guy actually."

Heads turned as orange and black smoke began to drift out of a ceiling vent, the smoke began pool along the marble floors before suddenly recollecting into a form in the center of the room. Corbeau Rouge stood, arms spread wide with a performers smile on his face, "Ta da~"

"Corbeau. Glad to see you could join us." Cinder said in a smooth voice that her subordinates knew was the tone she took when hiding her anger.

"Are you mad?" Corbeau said, going for the proverbial throat.

…

"Because you seem mad," Corbeau said nonchalantly before strutting towards a particularly plush looking chair and ploping down into its soft embrace, "I mean, not keeping me in the loop was your fault. I got bored waiting for you amateurs."

"What did you say?" Emerald asked with edge in her voice, taking a step forward in a threatening manner that made Corbeau laugh.

"Really? You're trying to intimidate me," Corbeau asked with chuckled before his smirk disappeared and his voice dropped to a low growl, "If memory serves, I laid your ass out in record time last time. Are you really that eager to see if I can go faster?"

Corbeau leaned forward, his lips a thin line as Emerald hesitantly took another step, "Because spoiler alert, I can."

"Enough," Cinder demanded, standing and looking towards Emerald, "Both of you."

"Yes, Cinder." Emerald grumbled, returning to her spot.

"Good dog, sit and heel like your master tells you." Corbeau sniped, a cruel smile gracing his face. He really didn't like Emerald.

"I said enough," Cinder snarled.

"Apologies. I can't help myself sometimes," Rouge admitted smugly, "But we wouldn't be in this situation if you kept me informed about our dealings."

"Fair enough," Cinder admitted begrudgingly, "We shall try to accommodate you from now on."

"Appreciate it."

"Now, about your next job," Cinder snapped her fingers and Mercury brought her a file that he had been holding before holding it out to Corbeau, "You'll be helping Roman and the White Fang steal a Schnee freighter of Dust next Monday night."

"Sounds fun." Corbeau admitted, looking over to Roman.

"I'll tell you the details just be for the call." Roman informed before Cinder approached Corbeau.

"And don't take or perform any illicit actions between now and then, the more active you are the more restless the police will be." Cinder explained, earning nod from Corbeau as he stood.

"You're the boss." And with those final words, Corbeau disappeared into the vent he entered from in a puff of orange and black smoke.

"Surprising. He can be compliant." Cinder remarked, hiding her true surprise.

"No… no he can't." Roman said, cocking his head as Cinder turned to her pawn, "Something's up…"

/~/

 **AN: Let's pretend that this wasn't sitting in my Docs account for like...three months, two hundred words from being done, and that I kinda just forgot about it...Yeah, let's pretend….**


	11. 009: Smoked

_009: Smoked_

* * *

 _"It's just a spark_

 _But it's enough to keep me going."_

 _\- Author Unknown_

* * *

 _"Awaken."_

Jaune's eyes flashed open and he saw something akin to Hell. The ground was blackened and scorched, covered in blackened and burnt husks of trees and destroyed weapons and armor that had been burnt by flames that seemed to be littered about the seemingly endless hellscape. But one thing drew Jaune's attention most, the only living thing within sight, a man in charred armor.

His helm was cover in a dirty white hood that transferred into a cape that seemed to have part of it burnt off, causing it to only hang down to his thighs. Jaune watched as embers seemed to drift off the cape as it flickered in the soft wind of the hellscape. Jaune stepped back as the Knight moved, his fingers flexing and the soft clinging of the plated fingers of his armor being all he could focus on.

"W- Who are you?" Jaune asked, looking for any sign of life within the man.

"Your predecessor." His thick gravelly voice responded, almost sourly, no other movement in his body being apparent though.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Jaune asked, trying with every ounce of his being to keep the fear from his voice.

"It means...that you are unworthy of wielding my flame."

"Your flame?"

"That power you seem to believe is yours, the power you use to commit petty crimes."

"Petty crimes? Who the hell do you think you are? Insulting everything I've done." Jaune's anger flared as he took a step forward.

"The fact you take pride in such things is evidence enough that my power shouldn't be in your possession," The knight suddenly grabbed the blade, pulling it from the ground and tossing it into the air before snatching it out of the air as a sudden explosion of fire enveloped the black blade, "My power has been used to tame armies, slay Grimm as old as time, force kings to their knees. You are a blight on my power's history that I intend to cleanse."

The knight shot forward, clearing the distance between them in a near instant before bring the blade down. The last thing Jaune saw was the flaming blade slicing through the smoke filled air. He could feeling the blade drifting effortlessly through him.

Then he woke up.

* * *

Jaune gasped as his eyes shot open, he felt an odd sensation that he hadn't felt in years. Terror. He felt complete and absolute terror. He felt himself clutching at his chest, where the Knight's blade had struck him, with his scarred hands to only feel the cold sweat the dream had given him.

Jaune's breath slowly steadied and Jaune lifted himself from the cot and to a shaky legged stand. Jaune rubbed the back of his neck before he slowly began to get dressed. Questions plagued Jaune's mind as he went about his morning routine…

Who was the Knight?

Why did he refer to Pyre as his power?

How did he work his way into Jaune's dreams?

Jaune plopped down on the "living room" couch as these questions tornadoed within his brain, bumping and slamming together so that the more he thought about them the more confused he became. Jaune angrily ran his scarred hands through his blonde mop and flinging his body across the couch.

"The hell's your issue?"

Jaune looked over to see Yuma enter the living room, long hair matted and wet, wearing what looked like fresh dark blue jeans and a black long sleeve, "Why are you here?"

"I was at Junior's last night and had one, or seven, too many. Noir was cool enough to let me crash on his couch and loaned me some of his clothes- Why the hell am I explaining myself to you," Yuma asked before he began running a comb through his thick mane, "I asked you a question."

"Nightmare." Jaune said, that's it. That's all the Knight was, some random nightmare. Some weird fucking nightmare.

"That bites." Yuma sat next to Jaune as he continued to mess with his black mane, his tail swinging off the edge of the couch.

"You ever…" Jaune trailed off and he stared down at his scarred hands, "Do you ever regret this whole life?"

"Sometimes, but I was never really good at being a Huntsman; I had a hard time willingly helping everyone. I only wanted to help the people who deserved it but as a Huntsman...you can't pick and choose who you care about, you have to help everyone or no one," Yuma laced his fingers before him and sighed, "But as an info broker or even as a criminal...I can hurt and help as I please, no one's telling me what to do."

"Are you…" Jaune sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Are you proud of any of this? Any of it?"

"I mean… Yeah. We stole enough money to talk to God and we've hurt a lot of bad people. Sure, we've hurt good people too but it's not like we want to hurt those people, they were just in the way," Yuma trailed off before looking to the rafters of the warehouse, "It's best to not think about it sometimes."

"Yeah… Yeah I guess it is." Jaune mumbled, he and Yuma talked for a while long; trying to avoid the more depressing topic that they'd just discussed. After an hour or so, Yuma left with the usual spring in his step, which left Jaune alone to wander in his thoughts for a while.

Jaune found himself working on his bike as a source of therapy whenever it was needed, even if the finely crafted machine didn't require maintenance, he'd just take parts of it apart before putting them back together. At this moment, Jaune found himself taking apart the hybrid electric-Dust engine. The familiar click of Noir's double monk straps rang out and soon the man himself was leaning against the wall of the shipping crate where Jaune kept his tools, "You still do that?"

"Do what?"

"Work on that thing even though its in better condition than ninety-five percent of your social relationships."

"Don't oversell it…" Jaune muttered as he mindlessly worked, "Eighty percent at most."

"What's up, Kid?" Noir asked, taking a knee neck to his brother.

"Nothing, just thinking is all." Jaune muttered, only slowing his work slightly.

"I forgot you were a teenager for a second." Noir ran a hang through a hand through his inky black locks as Juane suddenly stopped working and looked at him.

"The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You're a moody teenager."

"I am not moody." Jaune protested as Noir began toying with a spare socket wrench.

Noir snorted and rolled his eyes, 'Yeah and I'm not hot as fuck."

"Nice to see you're still humble." Jaune murmured before going back to work.

"I try," Noir smirked as he spun the socket wrench, "No but seriously, what's got you all moody?"

"Nothing, Noir. I'm just running running basic maintenance." Jaune lied.

"You really suck at lying to me, Jaune. Spill."

Jaune was silent for a moment, he cleared his throat before finally speaking, "Are we truly bad people?"

"Sooooo what? You've finally grown a conscience?"

"What? No! I don't feel guilty for anything, I'm at peace with everything but...is what we're doing what we should be doing?" Jaune asked.

"That's the awesome thing about free will, Jaune. We don't have to worry about what we should be doing, all we have to worry about is what we want to do."

"Yeah...you're right."

"I usually am, Little Brother," Noir stood with his hands in the pocket of his slacks as his eyes wandered downwards, "You know this isn't the life I wanted for you, right?"

"I know, Noir."

"And this definitely isn't the life Mom and Dad wanted for you."

"You've tried your best, Noir. That's all they could ask from you."

"Sometimes someone's best isn't good enough…"

"At least I'm not a drug addict." Jaune offered halfheartedly, almost forcing Noir to chuckle.

"You're everything else under the sun though."

"No one's perfect," Noir smiled somberly at Jaune's comment before beginning to exit the container, "Wait, Noir."

Noir spun and looked at his brother, "Hm?"

"You're the best brother I could ever ask for, you abandoned-" a soft swipe of Noir's hand silenced Jaune.

"No mushy stuff, Little Brother," Noir had a rare soft smile on his lips that Jaune immediately found himself copying, "See you around."

"See ya, Noir." Jaune went back to working on his bike before realizing something, it was Monday. Tonight he was robbing a Schnee freighter with Roman and the White Fang, "Shit, I better put this thing back together."

* * *

 _"Annie, are you okay, you okay, you okay, Annie?_

 _Annie, are you okay, you okay, you okay, Annie?_

 _You've been hit by, you've been struck by a smooth criminal~"_

"Do you really think this is the time to be listening to music?" Roman asked.

Corbeau looked up from his scroll and pulled out his earbuds. They had been waiting for their help from the White Fang for a hour now and Corbeau had began to become bored a long while ago, "Is there anything else I could be doing?"

Corbeau vaulted off the wooden crate he'd been sitting ons and spread his arms wide, "Cause I'm open to any and all suggestions, Roman."

"Fair point. Newbies are so unreliable, I hate working with these amateurs." Roman complained, fiddling with his cane as he leaned against a shipping container of Dust within the hideout where he and Cinder had been storing all the Dust and weapons they'd been acquiring.

"We should do some work together soon, just you and I, it'd be nice to work with a proper criminal again." Corbeau offered.

"You have anything planned?"

"I could get us something fun, a little armed robbery or maybe some grand larceny." Corbeau said as he paced, speaking in a dynamic tone with sweeping aarms.

"That sounds-" The large double sliding doors of the warehouse began to scrape open and Roman smirked, "Get ready."

"Always am." Corbeau said, as he sat on the crate once again.

"Like I said, a proper criminal."

Corbeau smirked as the black and white uniforms of the White Fang came into view, their leader however wiped the smirk off the mercenary's face, "Oh fuck."

A fair skinned girl wearing a long white coat with dark gray lining and a sleeveless black crop top with diamond shaped cut outs and tight fitting pants along with bootslead the squad of White Fang Faunus. Her long dark hair hung past her shoulders and dark cat ears sat utop her head while a cracked and bloodied Grimm mask sat on her face.

"Miss Belladonna, glad to see you could join us."

* * *

 **AN: This is a short chapter you say? Well...yeah, it was a good cut off point IMO and I've been really busy with other stuff unfortunately. I don't wanna sit here and vent because simply, that's not my style but i actually realized something...i've been writing for a few days short of three years and have never completed a story. Like...holy shit… so consider this my promise, I will finish Lost in The Flames (which is my most popular story by the way, so thank you so much) and I and will redouble my effort to make it my first finished story before Christmas. Thanks guys, see you very soon.**

 **P.S. The song of choice was Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson, but Jaune was listening to the Glee Cast version...because I'm a sucker for badass strings and Grant Gustin.**


	12. 010: Flash Burn

010: Flash Burn

* * *

"I don't rise from the ashes,

I make them.

I'm the whole fucking fire."

-Eric Van Vuren

* * *

"Oh shit." Corbeau mumbled and Blake Belladonna's masked eyes snapped to him, she froze mid step and her hands quickly began to tremble in anger before in a blinding streak of black she rushed forward, her blade drawn.

Corbeau's blade quickly exited its own sheath and became locked with Blake's, he could feel her trembling through the blade as she pushed against him, "Geez, no 'hi' or 'hello'? How rude."

Blake roared as she smashed her booted heel into Corbeau's midsection, sending him cerenning into a metal shipping container. Corbeau slumped against the before regaining his composure and standing and cracking his neck, as he rubbed the back of it with his free left hand, "Yeah, guess I deserve that. We even now?"

Blake launched herself forward and Corbeau parried Blake's lunge, sending her off to the side before releasing a flurry of slashes that sent the cat faunus into a temporary retreat that ended in her standing on a shipping container, her eyes bearing into Corbeau with disdain.

"Come on, Kitty," Corbeau switched his grip on Wilt to a backhand grip that seemed to infuriate Blake, Corbeau had thought as much, the fact he was using Wilt in a different way than intended drove her mad, "Let's dance."

"I have the high ground, you bastard." Blake lurched down, her blade colliating with Wilt before she was forced to Shadow backwards as Corbeau broke through her guard.

Corbeau held Wilt in front of him, " _Had_. And I think we both know that the high ground isn't always the best thing."

Corbeau launched himself through the air, spinning, twisting, and flipping through the air to dodge the pistol fire from Blake before they clashed once again. Corbeau growled as his weapon was pushed against Blake's. The anger and hate on what was visible of her face was apparent and Jaune couldn't bring himself to care as he parried the pitch black blade before feeling a small rush of fear as he and Blake were sent flying back; Corbeau colliding into a small collection of wooden crates that were filled with small baggies of Dust

Corbeau's head whipped to the side to see Roman to the side, his cane extended and smoking, "Play nice kids."

"I _am_ being nice, it's the kitten whose being aggressive." Corbeau said calmly, rising from the pile of wood and Dust before dusting off his coat.

"You bastard!" Blake screamed, lunging off the shipping container she had smashed against toward Corbeau; only to skid to a stop as Roman's raised cane flashed in her peripheral vision.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't attack the help." Roman said smoothly, earning a shocked expression rom the Cat faunus as Corbeau leaned down and picked up Wilt.

"What do you mean 'the help?'"

"What does it sound like? He's helping us, Cinder's orders," Roman said with a certain edge in his voice, almost forcing Blake to holster her weapon as he continued, "And if you make one more move against him, well, Cinder won't be happy."

Corbeau noticed how Blake's fists trembled at her sides, how her lips pressed together, how her companions looked around in utter confusion as the short fight winded to a close. As usual, he noticed it all.

"Fine." Blake eventually spat.

Corbeau sheathed Wilt and shoved his hands into his pockets as Roman lowered his cane and smirked, "Wonderful. Now, to the Bullheads. Roman spun and motioned for the White Fang grunts to follow as he walked out.

Corbeau was silent as he began to follow but the absence of footsteps behind him made him stop before he turned back to the girl in black and white, "Are you coming? Because I can do this without you."

Blake growled as she huffed past Corbeau, causing him to roll his eyes beneath his own mask, he thought it was better she wasn't at his back anyway.

* * *

Corbeau thought the heist went relatively smoothly. No police, no Huntsmen, no heroes. It was odd, something going off without a hitch, odd and boring. Corbeau found himself sulking slightly on the ride back while Roman seemed pleased and Blake was still glaring at him passive aggressively. He briefly wondered if she was trying to stare him to death or attempting to use laser eyes on him.

"Can I help with something sweetheart?"

"Why did you kill Adam?"

"Because he was a psychotic terrorist about to blow up a train full of people and I got a nice fat paycheck from it. It was a win win."

"Nothing but a filthy _human_ mercenary."

"And you're nothing but a terrorist."

"We're revolutionaries!"

"The only difference between the two is that the revolutionaries win, and right now you aren't."

"Not _yet_." Blake snarked.

"What does that even mean?" Corbeau asked sourly, raising his head from the lulled position it had been in.

Blake paused, her mouth becoming a small "O" before she smirked and looked to Roman, "So you haven't told him yet?"

"Told me what?"

"I was going to, but Cinder said that she'd much rather do it." Roman said with a wave.

"Told me what?" Corbeau asked again.

"Have you ever even stopped to consider why we've been stealing all this dust for these past few months?" Roman asked.

"What's this we shit? I killed a terrorist and a Schnee exec. for you." Corbeau shot back and Blake's smirk fell into neutral.

"Fair point. But, we've been collecting this Dust because we want to-"

"Sell it at a markup?"

"No. We want to-"

"Use it to power the operation?"

"God dammit, let me finish. We want to-"

"Use it as a bomb." Blake cut in, her voice mellow and even.

"A bomb?"

"We're going to load a train full of the dust and explosives and ram it into Vale through Mount Glenn." Roman flourished and Corbeau's eyes widened beneath his mask and a sense of dread filled him.

Mount Glenn was a destroyed settlement to the east of Vale and was a Grimm hotspot. If they connected Mount Glenn and Vale though a coordinated attack, terror would spread like wildfire and terror would bring the Grimm in troves to the citizens of Vale.

Then they would be slaughtered.

"You're going to attack Vale and use the Grimm as a weapon against the people." Corbeau muttered.

"Look at you, using your head." Roman snarked at his fellow criminal.

"It's a solid plan, making the Grimm your weapon." Corbeau commented before standing up abruptly, "If you don't need me anymore, I'm gonna bounce."

"Go for it," Roman said with a wave, "We'll be just fine here."

Corbeau hit the inside button and the Bullhead door opened slowly, allowing Corbeau to drop out of the Bullhead. He quickly disappeared into the night and Blake removed her mask as one of the grunts closed the door, Blake's golden irises dug into Roman before she spoke, "What did he mean when he said he killed a terrorist for you?"

* * *

"Where's Yuma?!"

"He's on his way, Jaune. Calm down." Noir said groggily as he watched his little brother pace back and forth in their living room, his scarred fingers digging through his blonde locks.

"I cannot calm down okay! This shit is **FUCKING CRAZY!** " Jaune shouted, flinging his arms out before running his hands through his hair again.

"What's up with you?! You come back and the first thing you do is drag me out of bed while calling Yuma's shop? It's three in the morning, what's the deal?" Noir asked watching his younger brother's red coat trail behind him as he paced.

"Something is going down, Noir. Something fucking big-" Jaune said frantically as the sound of a door slamming silenced him and bootsteps knocked through the warehouse.

"Jaune, it's like three in the morning. Why am I-" Yuma was forced to stop as he entered their living room due to the fact Jaune grabbed his collar and dragged him to the couch.

"Jaune, my jacket-!"

"Fuck your jacket, Mò. We have bigger problems!"

"What the hell is his deal?" Yuma asked as he collapsed on the couch only to see Noir shrug with his palms in the air.

Jaune continued to pace for a moment and the two older men watched as the teen muttered to himself, Yuma tilted his head after a moment, "What's up, Jaune?"

"Yeah, why are you so freaked out."

Jaune halted to a stop before turning to his older confidants and sighing before he relayed what he'd learned that night and watched as the tiredness faded from the boys' faces and was replaced with fear and confusion. Yuma leaned back as the story finished and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hand before speaking to the ceiling, "They're going to attack Vale."

"They're going to lean the Grimm right to our doorstep...and then invite them in." Noir murmured before sighing.

"Well? What do we do?" Jaune asked, desperation in his voice; something he hated with a passion. He was Corbeau Rouge, scourge assassin and thief of Vale, he was never desperate. This was another beast though, the number of innocent civilians who were going to die was astronomical. Innocent people would become snacks for Beowulves and Jaune would have helped.

"What can we do," Yuma asked, standing suddenly before he began to take Jaune's place as the pacer, "They have the entirety of the White Fang on their side and we're just three guys."

"We're not _just_ guys, Yuma. We're good at what we do and that's what makes it worse, we can't fight the entirety of the White Fang and Cinder's lackies." Noir muttered.

"We can't just let these people die," Jaune shouted, "We can't just let our city fall, we've killed and stole our way here and I'm not exactly down with letting this crazy bitch mess all that up!"

"What do we do then, Jaune! Please for the love of everything tell us what we do besides pack our shit and cut and run to Mistral!" Yuma shouted back with a sweep of his arm.

"I think we're missing the point," Noir suddenly muttered calmly, standing with his arms crossed, "We don't have to fight the whole White Fang and we don't have to fight alone."

"What does that mean?" Jaune asked.

"Cut off the head of the snake and the body dies." Noir said simply.

"Are you saying that we kill Cinder?" Jaune asked, finally slipping off his Corbeau Rouge jacket and throwing it on the couch.

"Cinder, her lackies, Roman, anyone who has control of the White Fang."

"How?" Yuma asked. The golden question, the question the three needed the answer to before going any further.

"We get onto that train, get to the front car, stop the train, kill everything between point A and B then kill the head of the snake."

"Easier said than done," Jaune said to his brother before continuing, "How are we even gonna get you and Yuma onto the train?"

"You bring us. Say we're with you and say we're extra security or something." Noir shrugged.

"This is so stupid." Yuma said rubbing his head.

"Not to mention half baked." Jaune added as he rubbed his eyes.

"Do you two have any other plans," Noir shouted with a sweep of his arms, "Because if we don't do something we're gonna die anyway."

"Screw it, I'm ready for an upgrade to anti-hero anyway." Yuma muttered.

"What?" Jaune asked.

"I said, I'm in."

"This is so dumb." Jaune ran his hands through his hair.

"It's simple, not dumb." Noir said, a hand on his hip as he stared at his brother.

"It's all we got," Jaune admitted, "Aight, let's do this but I think we need a little bit of an edge."

"Meaning?" Yuma asked as he took his hair out of a tight ponytail and shook it, now more relaxed.

"We need one more, we need Saxon." Jaune admitted.

"He is kinda good at killing shit." Noir admitted.

"He's also halfway across the world."

"Then I'll bring his ass back here," Yuma said with a shrug, "I know Vaccuo like the back of my hand."

"Really?"

"Hell no, but I have maps and enough common sense to ask for directions so I should be aces."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"We're so screwed."

Noir's words pertaining to their suicide mission weren't exactly motivating.

* * *

 **AN: Another short chapter...after a month of waiting… Okay so, I don't have the best excuse but all I got is that it's my senior year (final year of secondary school for those not familiar with the American education system) and that Destiny 2 came out...that's really all I got. So quick question about next chapter, do you guys want a section on Yuma and Saxon in Vaccuo or do you want me to just stick with the Arcs? I'll let you tell me in a review.**

 **Also about the ending, it's not gonna be a open and shut thing. It's going to be very open and not all the harem pairings are going to come to full fruition. I'm sorry if this isn't the ending you wanted but I'm leaving myself open to come back to this story for a sequel if I ever want to pick it up again but I doubt it.**

 **I used to love this story to be honest but I've contracted a terrible disease known as boredom. I'm not sure if it's my ADHD or the fact my psychology teacher is convinced I'm a multipotentialite (look it up, there's a cool TED talk on it) but I've just gotten bored with this story which sucks because I still love this story.**

 **It's become a long term relationship that's gone way past the honeymoon phase and we've just reached this stage where I try to keep loving it but I'm not receiving love back. Does that make sense? Am I crazy?**

 _ **Bitch you guessed it.**_

 **Who are you?**

 _ **Your suppressed desire for Master Rahool to stop fucking you and give you some exotic armor that isn't Foetracer or Knucklehead Radar**_

 **That shit ain't suppressed, ask my go to beta, Ace. He's my beta on some old stories that I'm scrapped and is still a close friend and has heard me shout my throat raw because of that MOTHER-!**

 **Anyway, thank you for listening (eh...reading) my tangent and rant and explanation and...yeah this is why I'm slow updating with most of my stories...it sucks. Keep it real and have a nice day/night/morning.**


	13. Unfortunate Truth

Dammit all to hell. Dammit all to fucking hell. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I swear a lot.

Shit…

I fucked up guys and girls. I really fucked up.

I made a mistake, I made the mistake that no writer wants to admit. I wrote myself into a corner, a big fucking corner.

I kinda brought this on myself to be honest. I started this in May of 2016 and I didn't plan shit.

I usually don't plan shit.

I have the attention span of a god damn hummingbird.

I start something and have no clue how to finish it.

I'm strung out on the worst flu of my life and ran into a wall while writing the next chapter before realizing that it didn't flow or work or just…

I can't deliver a good ending. Period.

I can't deliver a satisfying end to the whole harem that I've been sketchy on from the jump because I hate harems and just don't understand them. Being with multiple girls who don't know about each other at once without feelings is very possible, I have friends who do this kinda thing and it's what I was originally going for in this.

I have zero direction. No plan. No...nothing.

I got nothing.

This fucking sucks.

I hate doing this...it fucking sucks. I can't end a damn story that I used to love and I hate when stories have no ending. But I'm trying to be different by telling you that it is, in fact, over; instead of just being left to the void with no apology from the author or even an excuse.

So this is my apology and an excuse of some kind.

I'm sorry but this story is going to be unfinished, I'll do better next time.

I promise.


End file.
